Anton Kuerti facts for kids
Anton Emil Kuerti (born July 21, 1938) is a famous Austrian-born Canadian pianist. He is also a music teacher, composer, and conductor. He is known around the world for his amazing piano performances.
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Early Life
Anton Kuerti was born in Vienna, Austria. When he was a child, his family moved to the United States. There, he started learning piano from Edward Goldman in Boston. Anton was a very talented young musician. At just eleven years old, he played the famous Grieg Piano Concerto with the Boston Pops Orchestra. He continued his music studies at several schools. These included the Longy School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music. He also studied at the Curtis Institute. Some of his important teachers were Arthur Loesser, Rudolf Serkin, and Mieczysław Horszowski. When he was 16, he also studied with Henry Cowell. Later, Kuerti wrote an article about Henry Cowell. In 1957, Anton Kuerti won the important Leventritt Award. This award helped launch his career.
Music Career
Anton Kuerti moved to Canada in 1965. He later became a music teacher at the University of Toronto. One of his students there was the pianist Jane Coop.
Performing and Recording
Kuerti has traveled a lot as a solo performer. He has played in 150 different communities across Canada. He has also performed with every professional Canadian orchestra. He has played with many orchestras in the US and other countries too. He has recorded many albums. His recordings include all the concertos and sonatas by Beethoven. He also recorded sonatas by Schubert and concertos by Brahms. He has recorded works by many other composers as well. In 1976, he won a Juno Award for his album The Beethoven Sonatas, Volumes 1, 2 and 3. This award was for the best classical recording. He has been nominated for Juno Awards seven times.
Awards and Honours
Anton Kuerti has received nine honorary degrees from different universities. These special degrees recognize his achievements. In 1980, he started the Festival of the Sound. This is a classical music festival held in Parry Sound, Ontario. In 1998, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. This is one of Canada's highest honours. It recognizes people who have made a big difference to Canada. In 2007, he was a visiting professor at McGill University in Montreal. In 2008, Kuerti received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award. This is Canada's top honour in the performing arts. It celebrates a lifetime of artistic achievement.
Working with Young Musicians
Kuerti is the artistic director emeritus of Mooredale Concerts. He also helps lead the Mooredale Youth Orchestras. These are three orchestras in Toronto for children and teenagers. His late wife, Kristine Bogyo, who was a cellist, founded these orchestras. In 2002, Kuerti directed The Czerny Music Festival in Edmonton. This festival showed off the music of Austrian composer Carl Czerny. It featured many different types of Czerny's music.
Health Update
On October 17, 2013, Kuerti had a stroke while playing a concert in Miami. He is still recovering from it.
Views on Society
Anton Kuerti has always been a strong supporter of peace. In 1966, he signed a promise to not pay certain taxes. This was to protest the Vietnam War. He was also registered as a conscientious objector. This means he refused to fight in wars for moral or religious reasons. He was also a political candidate for the New Democratic Party. He ran in the Don Valley North area in the 1988 federal election. Kuerti, who is Jewish, has spoken out for peace in international conflicts. For example, he expressed his views on the 2009 conflict in Gaza.
Honours
In 2016, he became a member of the Order of Ontario. Kuerti has also received many other awards:
- 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, Germany (2007)
- Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012)
