Composer, conductor, and flutist Petr Kotik (born 1942 in Prague, Czech Republic) studied flute at the Conservatory and Music Academy in Prague (1956-62; 1966-69) and composition privately in Prague with Valdimír Šrámek and Jan Rychlík (1960-64) and at the Music Academy in Vienna, Austria with Karl Schiske, Hans Jelinek, and Friedrich Cerha (1963-66). In 1961, he founded the new music ensemble Musica viva pragensis, and in 1966, after returning from Vienna, the QUaX Ensemble, both based in Prague. In late 1969, Kotik relocated to the U.S. being invited by Lejaren Hiller and Lukas Foss to join the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts at SUNY/Buffalo. In 1970, a few months after his arrival, he formed the S.E.M. Ensemble, which expanded into The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble in 1992. The SEM Orchestra’s debut concert was at Carnegie Hall, where Kotik conducted the premiere of the complete Atlas Eclipticalis by John Cage, with an orchestra of 89 musicians. In 1999, Kotik founded the Ostrava Center for New Music, which in 2001 began to produce the biennial Ostrava Days Institute and Festival. In 2005, Kotik founded the international chamber orchestra Ostravská banda as the resident chamber orchestra at Ostrava Days. The success of Ostravská banda let to performances beyond Ostrava Days, including among others, in New York, Paris, Berlin, Utrecht, Cologne, and Akademie der Künste Berlin.