Jan Ryant-Dřízal
Composer
Jan Ryant-Dřízal (*1986) is a leading representative of the younger generation of Czech composers. With his composition Kuře melancholik, he won the first-ever Czech Philharmonic Composers‘ Competition, and his composition has been performed several times under the baton of Jiří Bělohlávek.
He is the recipient of several awards, including the annual OSA award for the most successful young classical composer, the Ernst von Siemens scholarship for the composition Zběsilost v srdci, and was invited to the prestigious ISCM – International Contemporary Music Festival in Bucharest with the composition Morphing Amadeus, premiered by Ensemble Modern.
His compositions are regularly commissioned by musical ensembles and festivals such as the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonics, the Prague Spring Festival, Smetana’s Litomyšl Festival, and Dvořák’s Prague. Vánoční kantáta, commissioned by the Prague Philharmonic Choir, has become part of the traditional Advent repertoire of large choirs after three years of successful reprises.
As a composer, he has also collaborated on projects with Tomáš Netopil, Iva Bittová, Adam Plachetka, Jana Semerádová, Tomáš Jamník, Alena Hron, Lukáš Vasilek, and many other top artists.
Jan Ryant-Dřízal’s work is dominated by symphonic, concertante, and vocal-instrumental compositions. However, chamber and incidental works are also abundantly represented.
The characteristic features of his musical language are the thoughtful and playful combination of traditional and modern means of expression, work with color and the inner energy of sound, detailed sophistication of musical structures, and pronounced emotionality.
Dřízal’s compositions are often inspired by non-musical themes such as natural processes, works of art, or broadly understood spirituality, which, on the one hand, gives them a deeper philosophical dimension, and on the other hand, they acquire a distinctly narrative, even visual quality.
Dřízal is a graduate of composition and music theory at the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Prague, where he also defended his doctoral degree. He expanded his studies with internships at the Estonian Academy of Music and Dance in Tallinn and the Royal College of Music in London. He has completed numerous master classes in the Czech Republic and abroad, where he has also actively lectured. He was the resident composer of the BERG orchestra at the Krzysztof Penderecki Institute of Music in Poland. He currently works as a professor of composition and music theory at the Prague Conservatory. He is a member of OSA and Umělecká beseda.
Selected Interviews (in Czech):
Forbes:
Artikl:
https://artikl.org/hudebni/dilo-by-melo-vzbuzovat-uzas
Pražské jaro: