Biography
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Born
21 July 1938 (age 86)
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Born In
Wien, Austria
Anton (Emil) Kuerti (born July 21, 1938, in Vienna, Austria) is a Canadian pianist, music teacher, composer, and conductor. Since his performance of the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Boston Pops Orchestra at age 11, he has developed international recognition as a solo pianist, particularly focusing on the works of Beethoven. Kuerti studied music at the Longy School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music and the Curtis Institute. His teachers included Arthur Loesser, Rudolf Serkin and Mieczysław Horszowski.
Even with international recognition as a solo performer, Kuerti has also been generous in sharing his talents within Canada. Of particular note are his performances at Hart House, University of Toronto (in a series shared with various world-renowned Chopin interpreters, covering the complete works of Chopin), and his participation in the Town and Gown Concert Series at Wenjack Theatre, Trent University, along with such other Canadian artists as Lois Marshall, Valerie Tryon and Fredrick Pritchard.
In 1980, he founded Festival of the Sound, a classical music festival in Parry Sound, Ontario.
Kuerti is one of today’s most recorded artists. His recordings include all the Beethoven concertos and sonatas, the Schubert sonatas, the Brahms concertos, and works by many other composers. A sometime peace activist, in Canada's 1988 federal election, Kuerti was the New Democratic Party candidate in Don Valley North. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2007 he joined the faculty at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montreal as visiting professor. In 2008 he was awarded the Canadian Governor General's lifetime artistic achievement award.
Kuerti is also the artistic director of the Mooredale Youth Orchestras, a small Toronto-based set of three orchestras for children and young adults.
His son Julian Kuerti is the assistant conductor to the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
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