Jaroslav Pelikán

Biography

Jaroslav Pelikán was born in 1970. He developed an affection for music as a member of the Kühn Children’s Choir. At the Prague Conservatory he studied flute with Jan Riedlbauch and composition with Jindřich Feld). Subsequently, he attended the Academy of Music in Prague (flute with František Čech and Jiří Válek, composition with Václav Riedlbauch and Juraj Filas). In 1992 and 1993 he was a freelance musician in Brazil. Since 1996 he has been first flautist of Prague’s National Theatre Orchestra. As a soloist, he has performed with many orchestras, including the PKF–Prague Philharmonia, the East Bohemia Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice, the Talich Chamber Orchestra, the North Bohemia Philharmonic Orchestra Teplice, the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra and the Brazilian Orquestra da camera do Pará. He has also played as a soloist in Japan, Brazil, Germany, Hungary, France, Italy, etc. He and the guitarist Jaroslav Novák are members of Jers-duo and released the CD Mlčenlivé příběhy (Silent Stories). In 2007, he was invited to teach at master classes held by a federal university in Brazil. At the present time, he plays a flute of Germany’s Anton Braun brand.

As a composer, Jaroslav Pelikán has primarily devoted to instrumental music. His work includes, for example, an oboe concerto (also performed in Tokyo in the presence of the Japanese Princess), concertos for flute, guitar and bassoon (the latter commissioned for the 2002 Prague Spring International Music Competition), Woodwind Quintet, Stabat Mater, Symphony in B flat major, Bethlehem Mass, etc. He composed Sonatina for the oboe competition within Prague Spring IMC 2008.