Anton Emil Kuerti, OC (born July 21, 1938) is an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n-born

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

, music teacher, composer, and conductor. He has developed international recognition as a solo pianist.Kuerti, Anton
– The Canadian Encyclopedia

Early life

Kuerti was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. As a child, he immigrated to the United States and studied piano under Edward Goldman in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. Kuerti performed the Grieg Piano Concerto with the

Boston Pops Orchestra The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart. Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symp ...

at age eleven. Kuerti studied music at the

Longy School of Music Longy School of Music of Bard College is a private music school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1915 as the Longy School of Music, it was one of the four independent degree-granting music schools in the Boston region along with the New En ...

, at the

Cleveland Institute of Music The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) is a private music conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1920 by Ernest Bloch, it enrolls 325 students in the conservatory and approximately 1,500 students in the preparatory and continuing educatio ...

where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree,Festival of the Sound
The Canadian Encyclopedia and at the Curtis Institute. His teachers included

Arthur Loesser Arthur Adolph Loesser (August 26, 1894 – January 5, 1969) was an American classical pianist, musicologist, and writer. Early life Born into a musical family in New York City, Loesser received early piano training from his German-born father unti ...

Rudolf Serkin Rudolf Serkin (28 March 1903 – 8 May 1991) was a Bohemian-born Austrian-American pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century. Early life, childhood debut, and education Serkin was born in ...

and

Mieczysław Horszowski Mieczysław Horszowski (June 23, 1892May 22, 1993) was a Polish-American pianist who had one of the longest careers in the history of the performing arts. Life Early life Horszowski was born in Lwów (Lemberg), Austria-Hungary (now Ukraine). H ...

. He also studied at the age of 16 at The Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore, with Henry Cowell; he later wrote an article, "Henry Cowell: Enfant Terrible of American Music", for the fall 1995 issue of ''Queen's Quarterly''.

Career

Kuerti moved to Canada in 1965. He later joined the music faculty at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. One of his pupils at the university was pianist

Jane Coop Jane Austin Coop (born 18 April 1950 in Saint John, New Brunswick) is a Canadian pianist and music pedagogue. An internationally recognized concert pianist, she has appeared as a recitalist and as a soloist with major symphony orchestras throug ...

. Kuerti has toured extensively as a solo performer, performing in 150 communities throughout Canada and with every professional Canadian orchestra and many in the US and elsewhere. He has also recorded many albums. His recordings include all the

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

concertos and sonatas, the

Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

sonatas, the

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...

concertos, and works by many other composers. He won the 1976 Juno Award for best classical recording for his album ''The Beethoven Sonatas, Volumes 1, 2 and 3,'' and has been nominated 7 times. Kuerti has received nine honorary degrees: PhD (hon) York University 1985; Laurentian University 1985; Cleveland Institute of Music 1996; Memorial University 2001; Dalhousie University 2002; McGill University 2004; Wilfrid Laurier University 2005; The University of Western Ontario 2007; Brandon University 2012. In 1980, he founded the

Festival of the Sound Festival of the Sound is an annual classical music festival that occurs from July to August in Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada. Established in by Anton Kuerti, the festival's original artistic director, the annual festival was held in the auditoriu ...

, a classical music festival in

Parry Sound, Ontario Parry Sound is a town in Ontario, Canada, located on the eastern shore of the sound after which it is named. Parry Sound is located south of Sudbury and north of Toronto. It is a single tier government located in the territorial District o ...

. In 1998, he was appointed an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

. In 2007 he was appointed to the special one-year Schulich Professorship

Schulich School of Music The Schulich School of Music (also known as Schulich) is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at 555, rue Sherbrooke Ouest (555, Sherbrooke Street West). The faculty was named after benef ...

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

as visiting professor. In 2008 Kuerti received the

Governor General's Performing Arts Award A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts. Kuerti is the artistic director emeritus of Mooredale Concerts, and of the Mooredale Youth Orchestras, a small Toronto-based set of three orchestras for children and teen-agers founded by his late wife, cellist Kristine Bogyo. In 2002, Kuerti directed The Czerny Music Festival in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

, to showcase the work of Austrian composer

Carl Czerny Carl Czerny (; 21 February 1791 – 15 July 1857) was an Austrian composer, teacher, and pianist of Czech origin whose music spanned the late Classical and early Romantic eras. His vast musical production amounted to over a thousand works and ...

(1791–1857). The festival featured symphonies, masses, string quartets and quintets, works for piano and strings, songs and miscellaneous chamber works, composed by Czerny. On October 17, 2013, Kuerti was overcome by a stroke while playing a concert in Miami. He continues to recover.

Political views

A longtime peace activist, Kuerti signed a tax resistance vow in 1966 to protest the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

and was registered as a conscientious objector. He was also the

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...

candidate in Don Valley North in the 1988 federal election. Kuerti, who is Jewish, went on record condemning

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

's invasion of Gaza in 2009.

Honours

In 2016, he was made a member of the

Order of Ontario The Order of Ontario () is the most prestigious official Award, honour in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. Instituted in 1986 by Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander, on the A ...

. Kuerti has also received National Music League Award 1956; Philadelphia Orchestra Youth Prize, 1957; Leventritt Award 1957; Toronto Arts Award, 1997; Opus Award, Quebec 1998; The Banff Centre National Arts Award 2007;

Robert Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau The Robert Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau is a classical music award. Since 1964 it has been awarded by the Lord Mayor of Zwickau. Robert Schumann was born in Zwickau. Between 1964 and 2002 the prize was awarded annually, since 2003 bienni ...

, Germany 2007; Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal 2012.

Electoral record

References

External links

Anton Kuerti website

Video documentary ''Anton & the Piano''

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

(Requires

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia Computing platform, software platform used for production of Flash animation, animations, rich web applications, application software, desktop applications, mobile apps, mo ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuerti, Anton 1938 births Living people Canadian classical pianists Male classical pianists Jewish classical pianists New Democratic Party candidates for the Canadian House of Commons Members of the Order of Ontario Officers of the Order of Canada Austrian emigrants to Canada Musicians from Vienna Canadian people of Austrian descent Cleveland Institute of Music alumni Longy School of Music of Bard College alumni Canadian male pianists Male conductors (music) Prize-winners of the Queen Elisabeth Competition Governor General's Performing Arts Award winners Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year – Solo or Chamber Ensemble winners Jewish Canadian musicians American tax resisters Buckingham Browne & Nichols School alumni 21st-century conductors (music) 21st-century Canadian male musicians