Czech composer, laureate of the “Voya Toncitch Prize” International Piano Composition Contest in Paris, in 1987. According to Mr. Toncitch “Zbynek Mateju’s colourful and contrastable composition entitled Self-Portrait unveils the hidden force of his intense intimate poetry. Dramatic and lyric elements, with their exclamatory accents and dreaming hues, are masterly united in the compact and impressive entity. Mr. Mateju’s work is written in the best tradition of piano music of his native country, but speaks his own original idiom.” Mr. Toncitch first recorded Self-Portrait by Mr. Mateju in Germany, for Radio Bremen in 1988, than premiered it in USA, at the University of California at Northridge on April 18th, 1991 and played it in Malaysia the same year.

Jean-François Grancher