Jan Klusák

Jan Klusák (born 18 April 1934 in Prague as Jan Porges) is a contemporary Czech composer, author of film, television and incidental music.

Klusák was born to a Czech Jewish family, who owned the farm in Prague (Prosek). After he graduated from the gymnasium, he pursued his studies at the Prague Music Academy as a pupil of Jaroslav Řídký and Pavel Bořkovec (in 1953-57). Later he concentrated solely on composing.

He has never worked directly with music groups or schools, although his style was temporarily influenced by the music of Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky, and later by the Second Viennese School, especially by Alban Berg and Serialism. Since 1959 he cooperated closely with Czech conductor Libor Pešek and with Chamber Philharmony. In the 1960s he occasionally acted in films, such as the 1966 film A Report on the Party and the Guests, in addition to composing the music. However, after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, Klusák was condemned as a "politically undesirable" person (he composed music for prohibited films). During the normalization Klusák was engaged in the Jára Cimrman Theatre, but he was forced to leave in 1975. Following the Velvet Revolution in 1989, he began to participate in public life again, and worked as a member and director of various cultural institutions in the Czech republic. He was awarded a "Classic 1995" Award for his compositions and for his String Quartet No. 5 in particular.

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