Michael Kocáb (*1954) The Czech composer, instrumentalist and singer Michael Kocáb has been an important figure in modern Czech music since the end of the 1970s. He studied at the Prague conservatory (studying organ with Jiří Ropek and composition with Ilja Hurník). He was already artistically active during his studies with Prague big band Milana Svobody and Jiří Stivín. He subsequently founded his own group, Pražský výběr, which helped determine the evolutionary line of Czech rock in the 1980s.