Jaromír Weinberger

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Jaromír Weinberger (January 8, 1896 – August 8, 1967) was a Czech, later American, composer.

Weinberger was born, and lived chiefly, in Prague until 1937, and studied at the Conservatories of Prague and, briefly, Leipzig. At the latter, he studied with Max Reger and assumed into his own technique that Master's immense grasp of counterpoint. In 1939, after extensive travels to the United States, Bratislava and Vienna, he fled his native country to escape the Nazis (he was of Jewish origin) and settled in New York State, teaching there and in Ohio. He became an American citizen in 1948.

During the 1950s, Weinberger moved to St. Petersburg, Florida. In later life, he developed cancer of the brain, and this, together with money worries and the neglect of his music, prompted him to take a lethal drug overdose.

Weinberger composed over 100 works; but the only one which is still remembered is the opera Švanda the Bagpiper (Švanda dudák), a world-wide success after its première in 1927. The opera is still performed occasionally, and the Polka and Fugue from it is often heard in a concert version.