Josef Leopold Zvonař was a Czech composer, pedagogue, and big music critic. Zvonař was born in Kublov, studied at the organ school in Prague with Pitsch, and worked as an assistant teacher and organist there; he was briefly the school's director. In 1860 he became director of Žofín Academy, a woman's music school. He died in Prague. Some of his early music is set to German texts, but after 1848 he aligned himself with Czech nationalism. His reviews of music appeared in Dalibor and Slavoj. He was a co-founder of the Hlahol choral society and the Umělecká Beseda, an artists' union. He may have taught Antonín Dvořák.