Czech pianist and pedagogue. Born 4 February 1910 in Plzeň; died 23 September 1996 in Prague.
After graduating from the business academy, which he studied at the request of his father, a piano dealer, he studied piano with Emil Mikulka. He continued his piano studies in 1929–1931 at the master school of the Prague Conservatory with prof. Karel Hoffmeister, in the school year 1936–1937 he also studied composition at the Vítězslav Novák Master School (for example, Vítězslava Kaprálová was his classmate). From 1946 he taught at AMU, where he was appointed professor in 1960. In the same year, he founded the Prague Trio with violinist Bruno Bělčík and cellist František Smetana. His students included, for example, Petr Eben, Zuzana Růžičková, Jan Novotný, Ivan Klánský, Karel Košárek, Petr Adamec, Květa Novotná and others.
Internationally recognized as one of the greatest Czech pianists, he focused mainly on the interpretation of Czech piano literature (especially Bedřich Smetana and Vítězslav Novák), from world literature especially on the piano works of Chopin, Schumann, Beethoven, Liszt, etc. During his artistic career he made a number of recordings for Supraphon. .