Josef Horak ( czech Josef Horák ; March 24, 1931 , Znojmo - November 23, 2005 ) is a Czech bass clarinetist .
He studied at the Brno Conservatory in the clarinet class with Frantisek Horak and Dolezal ( 1945 - 1951 ), then played in the philharmonic orchestra of the same city until 1963 . In 1955 he began his career as a solo performer on bass clarinet. Especially for him, Paul Hindemith created the bass clarinet version of his sonata for the bassoon, Gorak also played the transcriptions of the works by Bohuslav Martin and Frank Martin , and in 1959 he premiered the First Concerto for bass clarinet with the Glory Vorlova orchestra. In 1960, Gorak became one of the organizers of the ensemble “Musica Nova” in Brno, three years later he founded the ensemble “Sonatori di Praga”. At the same time, he begins to perform with pianist Ema Kovarnova (their duet gets the name “Due Boemi di Praga”), tours extensively and gives master classes all over the world, performing works specially written for him by Sofia Gubaidulina , Henri Pussor , Anestis Logothetis and numerous Czech composers. In 1972 - 1976 he taught at the Prague Conservatory . In 1976 , the American debut of Gorak took place, in 1984 “Due Boemi di Praga” first appeared in London . Horak contributed to the assertion of the bass clarinet as a solo instrument, helped the development of his repertoire, expanded the range to four and a half octaves, and introduced modern performance techniques (polyphony, etc.). In his repertoire - more than two thousand compositions, he willingly plays modern compositions with the use of tape recorder, aleatoric works and the music of the "third stream".