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First name: Miloslav
Last name: Penicka
Dates: 1935
Category: Quartet
Nationality: czech
Opus name: Pianoquartet (1999)
Publisher: Australian Music Centre
Peculiarities: See: http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Search/Home?lookfor=piano+quartets&type=subject&limit%5B%5D=&submit=Find
Information: I was born in Ostrava in the Czech Republick - then Czechoslovakia in 1935.In 1950 we moved to Prague, where I matriculated in 1953.Five years of study at the Prague Conservatorium of Music were rewarded with a High distinction diploma in composition in 1958.Two years of compulsory military service followed.Then I enrolled at the Charles Universitys' Philosophical Faculty which included the Prague Academy of Music Arts, graduating in 1964, also with High distinction in composition.This, according to professors Peter Platt and Jan Sedivka, is equivalent to BA Hons. or MA.In April 1964 I married the Australian violinist Janet Harvey, fellow student at the Uni and in November she imported me to Australia!With my English very rudimentary, I experienced variety of jobs from builders labourer to teaching piano and then a position in the ABC's music library was found and soon a promotion to my best ever sounding job - NSW music librarian,SSO.Very useful for a composer and even more so after I was alloved into the kitchen - percussion section of the orchestra.In 1977 I resigned to teach at Abbotsleigh, a secondary school in Sydney.After our legendary headmistress Miss Betty Archdale resigned, the new emcumbent, a test hockey player, instituted a much more strict and religion oriented regime.I was offered a lesser position with a lower salary, but we parted company. I received Czech Government Scholarships for 1953-58 and 1960-64, commissions, in Czechoslovakia and Australia, from organisations and ensembles such as the Pilsen Radio Orchestra (1962),Vycpaleks' Ensemble of Dances and Song, Sydney Grammar School (1980), and the Lane Cove Youth Orchestra (1994) and Nova Youth Orchestra Miloslav Penicka — current to May 2012