Zdenek Lukaš (1928-2007) has already composed over 300 opuses including symphonies, stage music and vocal pieces. He has arrived at a personally-expressive style stemming from the Czech musical thinking and especially folk music but also enriched with carefully selected elements of 20th century music. In the field of wind music, Lukaš has been praised particularly for his monumental „Sinfonia brevis" which had been selected as compulsory composition at the World Festival of Wind Bands (WMC = World Music Contest) at Kerkrade in the Netherlands in 1997.
The "Sinfonia BRevis for Symphonic Wind Orchestra and Percussion, op. 265" was commissioned by the Central Band of the Czech Army in 1995. Zdenek Lukaš had alread written several smaller works for this fine wind orchestra, and consequently used his experience gained in working with the symphonic band in an ideal way now. The result of this endeaver is a major symphonic composition boasting a overwhelming musical language of its own. "Sinfonia Brevis" makes the composer join the ranks of that group of important composers who payed the way for the promising development of symphonic wind music in the 20th century.