František Alois Drdla Sheet Music
- Born: 28th November 1868
- Died: 3rd September 1944
- Birthplace: Žďár nad Sázavou, Czech Republic
František Alois Drdla (Germanized as Franz Drdla) was a prominent concert violinist and composer, born in 1868 in Žďár nad Sázavou -now part of the Czech Republic. He studied violin and composition first at the Prague Conservatory and later at the Vienna Conservatory under Josef Hellmesberger, Jr., Anton Bruckner, and Franz Krenn. However, Drdla's music shows none of his teachers' influence. He played violin in the orchestra of the Vienna Court Opera, and then served as director and concertmaster of the Theater an der Wien. Later he toured throughout Europe (1899–1905) and later the United States (1923–1925), enjoying a reputation as a violinist with a technically refined tone. In 1927 he received an honorary title from the President of Austria. Drdla died in Bad Gastein, Austria in 1944. Although he composed severa operettas, orchestral works, a violin concerto, and two piano trios, fame came to Drdla as a composer of lighter music, with works that mixed popular Bohemian or Hungarian melodies and presented them à la viennoise.