BELLA, JAN LEVOSLAV  BIOGRAPHY

The Slovak composer Ján Levoslav Bella, ordained priest in 1866, was associated with the Cecilian movement in his native country, later leaving the priesthood to become director of music in Hermannstadt, now Sibiu in modern Romania, with its then considerable German population. In the next forty years he established a reputation as a conductor and composer, respected by his contemporaries Brahms, Hans von Bülow, Joachim, Dohnányi and others and writing music that at times echoes Liszt or Schumann and at times is overtly Slovak.