Novák, Jan

Jan Novák (1921 - 1984) was a Czech pianist and composer who is one of the most important Czech post-war composers. In 1947, he received a scholarship from the Ježek Foundation and went to study in the USA, where he studied with Aaron Copland and Bohuslav Martinů. In 1949 he married pianist Eliška Hanousková, with whom they performed on two pianos together. In 1968, after the Warsaw Pact invasion, he preferred to live free in exile. His scope of work was very wide, he wrote compositions for orchestras and soloists, for theater and film music.