The author is a versatile musician who has contributed constructively in the field of both classical and popular music.
Following the World War II, he founded an entertainment orchestra in Brno, a city where he also started attending the conservatory to study piano with Anna Skalická and composition with Theodor Schaeffer.
In 1947 he moved to Prague to follow his conservatory studies there under Emil Hlobil. A year later, in 1948, he was accepted at the Music Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts, and in 1953 he graduated here in Pavel Bořkovec's class.
After his arrival in Prague he worked as an arranger for Karel Vlach's and Ladislav Habart's jazz orchestras, and he also conducted several orchestras himself. He led the Folk Ensemble at the Prague Conservatory (1949–1950), Jaroslav Ježek's Orchestra (1950–1951), the Grand Entertainment Ensemble of the Faculty of Law at Charles University (1951–1953), and the Grand Dance Orchestra of the Czechoslovak Radio (1953–1955). He won some well-deserved recognition for his work of organization, too.
He held the posts of creative secretary of the Union of Czechoslovak Composers (1961–1963), artistic director of the International Jazz Festival in Prague (1954–1968), and he assumed the same position also in the Army Art Ensemble (1964–1967).
As a composer (he has been a freelancer since 1955) he is usually classified as a representative of the so called third stream that strives for a synthesis of jazz and classical music. He focuses mainly on instrumental compositions for symphonic orchestra, e.g. his Triple Concerto for flute, clarinet, French horn and orchestra (1971), the Concerto for orchestra (1974); for jazz orchestra, e.g. the Act for flute and big band (1968), Salut for soprano saxophone (flute) and big band (1987); or for variable chamber ensembles, e.g. the Sonatina drammatica for violin and piano (1975).
Titles for hire - see Complete catalogue
