František Neumann

František Neumann (16 June 1874 – 25 February 1929) was a Czech conductor and composer. He was particularly associated with the National Theatre in Brno, and the composer Leoš Janáček, the premieres of many of whose operas he conducted.

František Neumann was born in Přerov, Moravia in 1874. He attended school in Prostějov and Chrudim, then went to work in Prague while studying music under K. Sebor. He spent a year in voluntary military service at Olomouc, then joined his father's smoked meat business.

His serious music studies commenced in 1896 at the Leipzig Conservatory under Carl Reinecke and Salomon Jadassohn, and continued under Felix Mottl in Karlsruhe, where he worked as chorus master at the local theatre. Further posts were at Hamburg, Ratisbon, Linz, Liberec, Teplice and Frankfurt, where he remained until 1919.

He returned to Czechoslovakia and became Chief Conductor at the National Theatre in Brno, becoming its director in 1925. In his first season 1919-20 he introduced regular subscription concerts, and he brought a much needed discipline to the fledgling organisation. There, among other achievements, he premiered four of Leoš Janáček's operas:

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