MIROSLAV RAICHL (born in Náchod on February 2nd 1930) between 1949 and 1953 studied composition under Pavel Borkovec at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, staying on at the school for the next three years as an postgraduate student of Vaclav Dobias. After completing his studies, he worked for a short time in the Czech Music Fund, between 1958 and 1962 holding the post of creative secretary of the composers' section of the Union of Czechoslovak Composers, teaching at the Prague Conservatoire from 1965 to 1970 and since 1980 at the Conservatoire in Pardubice.        Miroslav Raichl's first major success as a composer came with the performance of his Second Symphony at the Festival of New Symphonic Music, held in Prague in 1961, and with the inclusion of that composition in a representative gramophone  record series,  known as  "Musica nova bohemica  et slovaca".  Passages filled  with drama,

contrasting with emotive meditative sequences, and a wealth of inventions in terms of melody and tone colour are charateristic features of Raichl's other orchestral compositions, too. This holds particularly true of his two sinfoniettas for chamber orchestra which - making use of a much smaller space and instrumental set-up - succeeded in putting across, though in a more concise form, a musical message similar to that offered by the larger Second Symphony. In "Five Dance Phantasies" the composer applied various melodic and rhythmic elements of modern dance music. Raichl's symphonic suite for children, entitled "An Afternoon in the Zoo", reflects his interest in and preoccupation with the world of children. In actual fact, he has so far dedicated to children many of his choral and instrumental works which - in spite of their occasional technical simplicity or - easiness - are suitable for concert performance.
 
     As far as operas are concerned, following his youthfully romantic work, "Fuente Ovejuna", Raichl composed two one-act operas to a libretto by Czech satirist Jiri R. Picek whose texts the composer also used for a number of choral works. Raichl's inclination to humour finds its expression in works composed to verses by Vaclav Fischer and Erich Sojka as well as other compositions without words.
 
     Since the early days of his career, Raichl's flair for melody has predisposed him to vocal music which figures most prominently among his works. After songs for choirs which carried an important social message Miroslav RaichI composed the successful cycle of femalechoirs, entitled "Verses Written on Water" and based on old Japanese poetry, and then won a great many awards at the Jirkov nationwide competition of compositions for children's choirs, the Jihlava competition of choral music and numerous laurels abroad, including the first prize from Tours in 1973 for his cycle of female choirs "C'est mon coeur, qui bat" and in the following year the first prize in the OIRT (International Radio and Television Organisation) competition in Budapest for his "Three Fairy Tales" for children's choir. Equally popular are Raichl's numerous choral arrangements of folk songs.
 
     Generally speaking, in his works Miroslav Raichl is known to proceed from and reflect contemporary life, drawing from it his inspiration and discovering new view-points of ordinary things, of the world of adults and children alike. His music is firmly grounded in the Czech tradition which Raichl has always succeeded in promoting, while composing music which is comprehensible to audiences and mostly technically accessible to performing artists.