Background
Jirák was born in Prague and became a pupil of Josef Bohuslav Foerster and Vítězslav Novák at the Charles University and at music academy in Prague.
composer conductor educationist university professor
Jirák was born in Prague and became a pupil of Josef Bohuslav Foerster and Vítězslav Novák at the Charles University and at music academy in Prague.
From 1915 to 1918 he was the Kapellmeister at the Hamburg Opera and worked from 1918 to 1919 as a conductor at the National Theatre in Brno and Ostrava. In 1947, he emigrated to the United States of America, where from 1948 to 1967 a professor at Roosevelt University, Chicago and in 1967 a composition teacher at the Conservatory college in Chicago. He remained in this position until 1971.
Jirák"s opera was Apolonius z Tyany (Apollonius of Tyana, 1912–1913), which was initially ignored by Prague"s National Theatre and later accepted under the title Žena a Bůh (The woman and the god, 1936).
He wrote six symphonies and several symphonic variations. In 1952 he wrote a Symphonic Scherzo for volume.
He also wrote many suites and overtures, numerous pieces of chamber music, many preludes and a Suite for organ, a Requiem, choruses, and song cycles. He was a popular and renowned musical theorist.