Juraj Filas (1955-2021)
Biography
Juraj Filas’ compositions are inspired by his faith in music’s power to heal wounds, open hearts, and bring peoples together. His music is encompassed by one philosophy: Harmony is the needed balance for the universe.
Juraj Filas is the author of more than 120 opuses across the genres of concerts, symphonies, cantatas, operas, and chamber music. His requiem, Oratio Spei (Prayer of Hope), has been performed at the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyala and at Carnegie Hall by the Oratorio Society of New York with a cast including Susanna Phillips, Matthew Plenk, and under the hand of conductor Kent Tritle.
Juraj Filas was born in 1955 in Kosice, Slovakia and died in 2021 in Prague. He studied at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts, with Jan Zdenek Bartos and Jiri Pauer who brought him to his lifelong passion for composition. Filas soon found national acclaim, three times winning the title of young composer laureate in Ostrava (Generace), and then found international renown when his TV opera Memento Mori won the Jacobs-Suchard Prize at the International Music Competition in 1989 in Slazburg.
