Leoš Janáček
Janáček’s family were poor people who lived in the countryside in Moravia. His grandfather and his father were both musicians and school teachers. Leoš was the fifth of nine children. As the tiny house was so crowded he was sent to Brno when he was eleven. There he went to a choir school, but soon the choir had to stop. He continued his music education there. After his final exams he had an unpaid job as teacher for two years. He became conductor of a monastery choir as well as a male-voice choir called Svatopluk. He made them a better choir and wrote music for them. He studied at the Prague Organ School for a year, but he was very poor and could not afford to go to concerts. He continued to conduct choirs and became friends with Dvořák. He spent a short time in Leipzig and Vienna.