August Stradal
1860 — 1930
August Stradal was a Czech virtuoso pianist, arranger, composer, author and music teacher.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article on August Stradal.
From the period sources
August Stradal, an able Bohemian pianist born in Teplitz in 1860, was a pupil of the Vienna Conservatory and of Liszt, according to The New Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians (1924). After teaching at the Horák Piano School in Vienna from 1893 to 1895, Stradal devoted himself to a virtuoso career. By 1919, he had settled in Schénlinde, Bohemia, as a teacher. He published original piano pieces and songs, alongside numerous arrangements of works by composers such as Liszt, Bach, and Handel, and was preparing a monograph on Liszt. Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1908 and 1922) places Stradal among the “conscious efforts” of composers like Bendl, Smetana, Fibich, and Dvorak, whose work, alongside the influence of the Bohemian peasant, contributed to the “extraordinary development” and existence of a distinct Bohemian school of music.