Štěpán Koníček (7 March 1928 – 26 May 2006) was a Czech composer and conductor. He is known for his long-term collaboration with the Film Symphony Orchestra (FISYO) and for recording

film music A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to e ...

. Koníček was born in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. He studied conducting under

Karel Ančerl Karel Ančerl (11 April 1908 – 3 July 1973) was a Czechoslovak conductor and composer, renowned especially for his performances of contemporary music and for his interpretations of music by Czech composers. Ančerl was born into a prosper ...

and composing as a pupil of Pavel Bořkovec, both at the

Academy of Performing Arts in Prague The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague ( cs, Akademie múzických umění v Praze, AMU) is a university in the centre of Prague, Czech Republic, specialising in the study of music, dance, drama, film, television and multi-media. It is the larg ...

. During his career, he collaborated with film directors such as

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and

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. He created music for the film ''

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'', which won the Academy Award for

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in 1961. He also wrote the music of the

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first short film The Last Trick. Some of Koníček's compositions incorporate elements of Brazilian music such as bossa nova and samba. He contributed the musical score for Gene Deitch's 1961–62 ''

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'' cartoons, in which his name credits were anglicized as Steven Konichek to prevent association with Communism.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koníček, Štěpán 1928 births 2006 deaths 20th-century conductors (music) Animation composers Czech classical composers Czech conductors (music) Male conductors (music) 20th-century Czech male musicians