Jiří Trtík (pronounced Yearshee Turteek) AKA Trtini is a Czech composer, conductor, and educator. In 2021, Jiří was honoured to receive the OSA Award for the most successful Czech composer of classical music outside of the Czech Republic.
Jiří has received a number of commissions and performances from world-class performers and ensembles, such as members of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Grammy Award-winning Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Kühn Mixed Choir, the principal cellist of The Cleveland Orchestra Mark Kosower, and the associate principal bassoonist of The Cleveland Orchestra Barrick Stees. His works have been performed in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Latvia, United States, and Japan.
In 2020, Jiří has composed music for the movie Wolves on Borders (Martin Páv), which was premiered at the documentary movie festival Vision du Reel in Switzerland. Other movies that Jiří has scored are The Hunch (Nina Mikesková), Zelená Vdova (Luboš Kučera), Jdi dál (Martin Páv). He has participated in a several international masterclasses (Vocal Espoo 2014 in Finland, International Composition Masterclass in Latvia in 2014).
Jiří is the author of the successful crowdfunding campaign Concert For Forest. In the summer of 2021, he managed to raise funds for the premiere of a non-traditional composition in a forest environment and the creation of a new professional music ensemble based in Prague called STRO.MY. The project also attracted an international audience and people from all over the world contributed to the premiere of this non-traditional composition. As a conductor, he has conducted performances of Mozart’s Requiem, B. Martinů’s Opening of the Wells, as well as he premiered choral works by several young Czech composers.
In the Fall of 2021, Jiří arranged, recorded and published a CD of Czech Christmas Mass by Jakub Jan Ryba with his Ensemble STRO.MY.
Jiří has earned his Master of Music at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has also studied composition and conducting at the Prague Conservatory, and philosophy at the Charles University. He writes a blog about music and organizes benefit concerts.
Jiří Trtík is a recipient of 2nd prize (1st was not given) and Special Prize for The Best Czech Composition at the International Composition Competition Generace 2019 at the Janáček International Music Festival in Ostrava. He also received first-prize at the Cleveland Composers Guild Fifth Annual Collegiate Composition Competition 2018, and won the WCSMS 2018 Promising Young Composers Competition. In 2018, Jiří Trtík was honored to receive the 2018 Donald Erb Prize in Composition.
Jiří publishes his music at the Czech Radio Music Publishing House.
Jiří joined the faculty of the International Conservatory of Prague in 2020 and lives in Prague Holešovice district.