Cikker, Ján

Born July 29, 1911, in Banská Bystrica. Slovak composer. People’s Artist of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1966).

Cikker studied composition with J. Křička at the Prague Conservatory from 1930 to 1935 and with V. Novák at the conservatory’s master school of composition in 1935 and 1936. In 1936 and 1937 he completed his training under F. Weingartner in Vienna. In 1939, Cikker assumed a teaching position at the Bratislava Conservatory, and in 1951 he became a professor of composition at the Higher School of Musical Arts in Bratislava. One of Czechoslovakia’s leading composers, he is chairman of the country’s Council of Music.

Cikker’s works in various genres combine an individual musical idiom and modern technical devices with a vivid reworking of elements from the national musical folklore. His best known compositions in Czechoslovakia and other countries are the Concertino for Piano and Orchestra and the symphonic poem A Fight (first performed 1946 at the First Prague Spring Music Festival). His operas include Juro Jánošík (produced 1954), Beg Bajazid (produced 1957), Resurrection (based on the novel by L. N. Tolstoy, produced 1962), and Mr. Scrooge (based on Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, produced 1963). Other works include Bucolic Poem (for ballet, 1944), three symphonies (1930, 1937, 1975), three symphonic poems, Slovak Suite and other orchestral and chamber works, songs, compositions for piano, and music for the theater and motion pictures.

Cikker was awarded the K. Gottwald State Prize in 1955.