Today’s date marks the birthday of a 20th century Czech composer you perhaps have never heard of. Viktor Kalabis was born in 1923 and by age 6, was giving public piano performances. All the signs pointed to a brilliant career in music. But Kalabis would face – and surmount -- two major political hurdles.

First, his formal musical studies were delayed by the Nazi occupation of his country in 1938, when he was forced into factory work. Even so, he found time to conduct a choir, perform in a local trio, and take lessons in composition.

After the war, Kalabis completed his studies in Prague, where he met and married a young harpsichordist named Zuzana Ruzickova, who was a concentration camp survivor. Victor was a Gentile, but in Stalinist Czechoslovakia, anti-Semitism was rampant and marrying a Jew was frowned upon. To make matters worse, both Victor and Zuzana refused to join the Communist Party, hardly what one would call “a smart career move” in those years. Despite that, Kalabis began to attract commissions and performances of his music at home and abroad.

Following the 1989 Velvet Revolution, and before his death in 2006, Kalabis assumed a more prominent position in his country’s musical life. His symphonies, concertos, and chamber works reflect his admiration for both Igor Stravinsky and his Czech compatriot Bohuslav Martinu, and are now regarded as some of the most important contributions to Czech music in the late 20th century.