Aleš Březina

Biography

Aleš Březina (*1965), Czech composer and musicologist. He studied violin at the Pilsen Conservatory and musicology at the universities of Prague, Olomouc, Basel and Berlin.

Film work

Březina has composed music for more than 20 films, e.g. Jan Hřebejk (Divided We Fall, Up&Down, Beauty in Trouble, Kawasaki Rose, Honeymoon, The Case for the Exorcist), Petr Zelenka (The Buttoners), Jiří Menzel (I Served the King of England and Donšajns), Dagmar Knöpfel (Durch diese Nacht sehe ich keinen einzigen Stern), Petr Nikolaev (Miss Black, Black Miss and Wolves in the City), Juraj Lehotský (Nina, Plastic Symphony), Georgis Agathonikiadis (My Uncle Archimedes), Tomáš Pavlíček (Cottage for Sale), David Mrnka (Milada); Olga Sommerová (Vera 68 and Marta) and Olga Špátová (Největší přání 3) and TV programmes, e.g. In the direction of Dan Wlodarczyk (Private Traps – episode Escape) or for fairy tales for Czech Television directed by Karel Janák (How We Resuscitated Grandpa, Best Friend, The Princess and Half a Kingdom, The Christmas Star). He has been nominated for the Czech Lion Award four times for his film music (Horem pádem, Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále, Líbánky, Milada), and for his music for the film Líbánky for the Czech Film Critics Award. He was nominated for the European Film Composer Award 2010 for his music for the film Kawasaki Rose. He is currently finishing the music for the film Smetana by Marek Najbrt.

Theatrical work

His work for the theatre is also extensive, where he has collaborated with Robert Wilson, Jiří Ornest, Jiří Nekvasil, Jan Hřebejk, Jiří Menzel, Pamela Howard, Šimon Caban, Jan Nebeský, Martina Schlegelová, Michal Dočekal, Petr Zelenka, Jana Kališová, Martin Vačkář, Roman Meluzín, Radim Špaček, etc. Together with the librettist and director Jiří Nekvasil, he is the author of the opera Tomorrow, There Will Be... about the trial of Dr. Milada Horáková (Alfréd Radok Award for Best Music in 2008; film version directed by Jan Hřebejk, 2010). Březina is also the author of the music and libretto of his second opera Toufar (premiere 2013, National Theatre Prague, directed by Petr Zelenka), about a plea with the parish priest Josef Toufar, which was created as part of the Parallel Lives project. Directed by Blažena Hončarivová and Petr Zelenka, CT 2015. In September 2010, his full-length "visual musical theatre experience" Mucha's Epic on a libretto by Šimon Caban premiered at the Municipal Theatre in Brno. He also composed the incidental music for two productions by the world-renowned director Robert Wilson, The Makropulos Affair (premiere 2010, Alfred Radok Award) and 1914 (premiere 2014, nominated for the Alfred Radok Award), which was created for the centenary of World War I; Březina is also the co-author of the play's theme. He was nominated for another Alfréd Radok Award in 2012 for his music for the production of Shakespeare's King Lear directed by Jan Nebeský (premiere 2011, National Theatre Prague). In 2012, the premiere of the production of Beaumarchais' The Marriage of Figaro took place at the National Theatre in Prague, directed by Michal Dočekal. In December 2015, the South Bohemian Theatre staged Martin Vačkář's play Ark of Hope, directed by Jana Kališová, for which he wrote the music. In November 2016, the J. K. Tyl Theatre in Pilsen presented the Musical Liduschka (Baarová), on which he collaborated with Roman Meluzín and Karel Steigerwald (nominated for the Theatre Critics' Awards and the Theatre Newspaper Awards, directed by Jan Brichcín, film version, CT 2020). In June 2017, the international project Charlotte was presented as a workshop at the Luminato Canadian Theatre Festival in Toronto and subsequently performed in Taiwan: A Tri-Coloured Play with Music, on which he collaborated with Pamela Howard and Alon Nashman. In 2019, this chamber opera musical toured with stops in Toronto, Tel Aviv, Lviv, Kiev, Prague and the Smetana Litomyšl Opera Festival (nominated for the Classics Prague Award). A production of Sophocles' play Élektra is currently playing at the Dlouhá Theatre by director Hana Burešová, and Jan Nebeský's Beckett production Pan Pros with live music by Clarinet Factory is playing at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art from October 2019.

Since September 2021, the F. X. Šalda Theatre in Liberec has been presenting Březina's full-length ballet Mowgli, and in November of the same year his musical fairy tale Monkey and the Nerds, performed by Iva Bittová, premiered at the festival Strings for Children. In March 2024, the La Fabrika theatre staged Karel Steigerwald's play And So I Beg You, Duke, and in June 2024, Jan Nebeský's production Wernisch premiered on the New Stage of the National Theatre Prague. In November 2024, his new full-length ballet The Snow Queen based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale will premiere at the F. X. Šalda Theater in Liberec.

Concert production

His orchestral works, melodramas and suites from his film and theatre scores have been performed by the Martinů Philharmonic Zlín, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Guarneri Trio Prague, the Dvořák Trio, the Eben Trio, the North Bohemian Philharmonic Teplice, the South Bohemian Philharmonic and the Hradec Králové Philharmonic. He has written, for example, Requiem for children's choir and small ensemble, Festive Feast for mixed choir and orchestra, Agnus dei for three countertenors, melodrama A-ha! (2006) for Soňa Červená and string quintet and piano cycle Repercussion (premiere 2009, Prague). In 2012, Karel Košárek performed the world premiere of Falling Leaves for piano and orchestra in Holešov with the Prague Philharmonic and conductor Gaetano d'Espinosa. A chamber version of this piece has been in the repertoire of the Epoque Quartet since 2019. In 2013, the Boni pueri boys' choir performed a new version of Březina's Requiem for solo voices, choir and orchestra with the South Bohemian Philharmonic and then with the Hradec Králové Philharmonic. The piano trio Kawasaki Rose was commissioned by the IMF F. L. Vek (premiered by the Dvořák Trio on 10/2014, Nové Město nad Metují). The 3rd movement of this piece was written for the Guarneri Trio Prague and had its world premiere in 2011 at the Stadtcasino Basel, the Czech premiere a year later at the Rudolfinum in Prague). In 2014, he also prepared a new version of the Requiem, which was performed by Boni pueri and the ensemble Musica Florea under the direction of Marek Štryncl with soloists Iva Bittová and Vojtěch Dyk at the Janáček May and Concentus Moraviae festivals.

He was commissioned by Pavel Šporcl to arrange the song Song for Chava (and Pavel) from the film Musíme si pomáhat, which was released in September 2014 on Pavel Šporcl's CD Gypsy Ways. He was commissioned by the town of Polička to compose the festive fanfare Polička 750 for the 750th anniversary of the town's foundation in July 2015. In March 2017, the South Bohemian Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Vojtěch Spurný premiered suites of film and theatre music: The Fall, We Must Help Each Other, Mucha's Epic and I Served the King of England, under the title I Served Jiří Menzel and Jan Hřebejk. For the reopening of the National Museum in Prague and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic, he composed the sinfonietta Monumenta bohemica, which he premiered at the SOČR with conductor Radek Baborák (nominated for the Classics Prague Award). He is composing a new song cycle for soprano Martina Janková.

In his academic profession, he is mainly devoted to research on Bohuslav Martinů and Czech and world music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Since 1995 he has been the director of the Bohuslav Martinů Institute in Prague (www.martinu.cz) and the chairman of the editorial board of the Complete Critical Edition of Bohuslav Martinů's works. He reconstructed the first version of the opera The Greek Passion (premiered at the Bregenzer Festspiele 1999 in co-production with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Laurence Olivier Award 2000).

Last update: September 2024