Karel Husa was born in Prague in 1921 and was a student there at the Conservatory and Academy of Music Arts. He later lived in Pares while studying with Honegger and Boulanger. In 1954 Husa began his long association with Cornell University, where he is still on the faculty as Professor Emeritus. He is one of the most often preformed and well known composers in the United States, and his dual career as composer and conductor carries him through out the United States and Europe. He is the recipient of numerous prizes and honors, among which are Pulitzer Prize, Gueggenheim Fellowship, a UNESCO award, and the Czechoslovakia Academy for Arts and Sciences prize. Among many commissions he has received are ones from the Koussevitsly Foundation and the New York Philharmonic.

Karel Husa wrote Sonata a Tre for the Verdehr Trio.