NELHYBEL, VACLAV  

Václav Nelhýbel was born in Czechoslovakia and studied at the Prague Conservatory. He moved to the United States in 1957 and became a citizen in 1962. Fanfares is a greatly abridged adaptation for band of the Overture from the opera Libuše by Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884). Along with Antonín Dvořák, Smetana is considered to be one of the leading figures of Czech music. Like many composers of Czech heritage, Václav Nelhýbel considered Smetana to be a great musical influence.