Ján Zimmer

Ján Zimmer (16 May 1926 – 21 January 1993) was a Slovak post-romantic composer and pianist. Ján Zimmer was born in Ružomberok, North Slovakia. He studied at the Bratislava Conservatory between 1941 and 1948 with Anna Kafendová (piano), Józef Weber (organ) and Eugen Suchoň (composition). Afterwards he studied composition with Ferenc Farkas at the Budapest Music Academy, and in Salzburg in 1949. From 1948 to 1952 he taught music theory and piano at the Bratislava Conservatory. He also worked for the Czechoslovak Radio. From 1952 he devoted his time exclusively to composition and performance as a concert pianist (he performed in particular the piano part of his own piano concertos). His works, in the post-romantic style, are overall expressionistic and occasionally incorporate Slovakian folk music. Some of his works, such as the cantata The Uprising (1954), the powerful symphonic poem Strečno (1958), and the vocal symphonic poem Liberation (1975) are written in a nationalist spirit. Ján Zimmer composed more than 120 works, including especially two operas (1963 and 1977), twelve symphonies (from 1955 to 1985), seven piano concertos (from 1949 to 1985), many other concertos for various instruments, chamber music, songs, choral works (including a Magnificat, 1951), and numerous pieces for piano solo. He died in 1993 in Bratislava, at age 66.