After August 1968, nobody could trust communism anymore
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Jan Balcar was born on 14 September 1941 in Prague. His father was an evangelical minister in Prague - Strašnice and his mother taught piano. Jan had two older brothers with whom he formed a band in his youth. Among his relatives we can find political prisoners of the communist regime and emigrants, however, the witness avoided persecution. He graduated from the conservatory and later from the Academy of Performing Arts. After school, he began teaching music at the Jan Deyl Conservatory for the Visually Impaired in Mala Strana. He became deputy director, although he never joined the Communist Party. In November, as a musician, he attended the canonization of Agnes of Bohemia in Rome, and after returning home he euphorically experienced the Velvet Revolution and the fall of the Iron Curtain.
