Prof. PhDr. Jiří Skopal, CSc is a choirmaster, conductor, music pedagogue and organizer of musical life. He was born on 15. 8. 1947 in Veľké Losiny (CZ)
He received his first musical education from his father Jan Skopal, choirmaster of the North Moravian Teachers' Choir Association (Pěvecké sdružení severomoravských učitelů). Subsequently, in 1965-69, he studied at the Faculty of Education in Olomouc. He received the titles of doctor and associate professor at Charles University in Prague (1973, 1982) and in 1994 he was appointed professor.
With his first choir, which he founded at the Primary School in Postřelmov, he won a regional singing competition (1972). In 1968-1982, he worked as a vocal advisor in the North Moravian Teachers' Choir Association and in In 1971 he founded a choir in Mohelnice. Since 1974 he has been working at the Faculty of Education of the University of Hradec Králové (CZ), where in the years 1986-1990 he held the position of head of the Department of Music Education and on his initiative the subject of choir management was created. He is the author of publications in the field of music psychology, history of music, conducting a boys' choir and choir management, theory and methodology of choral singing. In 1977 he took over the leadership of the choir from Jozef Navrátil, which a year later was named the Hradec Králové Choir Jitro and with which he achieved national and international success on concert stages in Europe, Asia, the USA, Japan, Australia, and at world competitions (Llangollen, Neerpelt, Lecco, Nantes, etc.). Jiří Skopal still works as a choirmaster and artistic director of this choir. With his wife Květoslava Skopalová, he founded and led the boys' choir Boni Pueri from 1982 to 1996.
He has been invited to the USA since 1989 by the American Choral Conductors' Congress (Boston, San Antonio, New York, Washington and others). Jiří Skopal sits on juries of national and international competitions and is a lecturer at many choral conducting courses in the Czech Republic and abroad.