Janacek was a chorister at the Augustinian Queen's Monastery in Old Brno, where the choirmaster Pavel Krizkovsky took a keen interest in his musical education. After completing his basic schooling he trained as a teacher and, except for a period at the Prague Organ School, he spent 1872-9 largely as a schoolteacher and choral conductor in Brno.

In 1879 he enrolled at the Leipzig Conservatory, where he developed his interest in composition under the strict and systematic supervision of Leo Grill. After a month in Vienna he returned to Brno in May 1880 where he became engaged to one of his pupils, Zdenka Schulzova, whom he married in July 1881.

In Brno, Janacek took up his former activities and he also founded and directed an organ school and edited a new musical journal, Hudebni listy. After composing his first opera, Sarka, he immersed himself in collecting and studying Moravian folk music, which bore fruit in a series of orchestral suites and dances and in a one-act opera, The Beginning of a Romance. This was favourably received in 1894, but Janacek withdrew it after six performances and set to work on Jenufa.

During the long period of composition of Jenufa (1894-1903), Jana