Czech-American composer Ladislav Kubík died on 27th October. He was 71.
Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Ladislav Kubík studied at the Prague Academy of Music. He established a significant career in Europe—with commissions from Radio France, the Salzburg Festival, Centro para la Difúsion de la Música Contemporánea and the Centre International de la Musique pour Voix d’Enfants as well as receiving the Guggenheim Fellowship and other prizes—before joining Floria State University to teach composition in 1991. He eventually became a US citizen.
His works were especially widely performed in his adopted country and his native Czech Republic (as it became in 1993), recent premieres including his Concerto No. 3 for Piano, Orchestra in Tallahassee, Florida (2010); his Sonata-Portrait for solo piano at Ceský Krumlov, Czech Republic (2009); and Sinfonietta No.3 Gong in Prague (2009). Subsequent prizes included 1st Prize in the International Franz Kafka Composition Competition for Der Weg (1993); 1st Prize in the U.S. NACWPI Composition Contest for Two Episodes for Bass Clarinet, Piano, and Percussion (1995) and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (2010). He is name is also attached to a composition prize awarded by Florida State University, The Ladislav Kubik International Prize in Composition.
Sources:
Obituary at Florida State University
Florida State University Symphony Orchestra – Kubik’s Piano Concerto No. 3, first movement