After being released,[clarification needed] he was admitted to the Prague Academy for Music, and there he studied piano with František Rauch and composition with Pavel Bořkovec.
He wrote numerous vocal, choral, symphonic, piano, and chamber works, but it was organ music which remained his greatest love and in which he was most prolific.
Among Eben's biggest projects were the oratorio Apologia Socratus, the ballet Curse and Benediction (Kletby a dobrořečení), written for the Holland Festival 1983, the orchestral works Hours of the Night (Noční hodiny) and Prague Nocturne (Pražské nokturno), for the Vienna Philharmonic, the Organ Concerto No.
2 for the dedication of the new organ for Radio Vienna, the mass Missa cum populo for the Avignon Festival, the oratorio Holy Symbols (Posvátná znamení) for Salzburg Cathedral, and the opera Jeremiah (intended for church, not theatrical, performance).
[2] Eben improvised and developed a cycle of organ movements in the years from 1991 to 2003 based on excerpts from John Comenius' famous book, Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart that became a published work in response to positive reception.
The series compiles all of Eben's works for solo organ which have been published to this date, played by Gunther Rost on various contemporary instruments.
Petr Eben's Moto Ostinato from "Sunday Music" is played by English organist Gillian Weir in her "The King of Instruments" series (Priory Records' PRDVD 7001).
The Canadian organist Philip Crozier, playing the Fulda Cathedral organ, has also recorded a number of Eben's works on the Azimuth label.
Swedish jazz pianist Bobo Stenson included two versions of Eben's "Song of Ruth" on his 2008 trio album Cantando.