Lost Serenades for Flute & Piano

Burian Lost Serenades for Flute & Piano

Emil František Burian (1904 - 1959) was a Czech composer, vocalist, band leader, lyricist, playwright, poet, journalist, actor, theatre director.  Born into a musical family – his Father was an opera singer and his Mother a singing teacher – Burian studied at the Prague Conservatory under J. B. Foerster and joined Devetsil, an association of Czech avant-garde artists.  His work was strongly influenced by left-wing ideas leading to his arrest in 1941 spending the rest of World War II in Nazi concentration camps.  Following the war he returned home and was involved in rebuilding Czech cultural life.