Kuerti, Anton (Emil)

Kuerti, Anton (Emil), esteemed Austrian-born pianist; b. Vienna, July 21, 1938. He was taken by his parents to the U.S. as a child and was naturalized in 1944. He began piano studies with Edward Goldman in Boston and made his debut as soloist in the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Boston Pops Orch. at age 9. He also received training in piano from Bodky and Gregory Tucker and in composition from Arthur Shepherd at the Longy School in Cambridge, Mass. (1948–52), in piano from Balogh and in composition from Cowell at the Peabody Inst. in Baltimore (1952–53), in piano from Arthur Loesser and Beryl Rubinstein and in composition from Marcel Dick at the Cleveland Inst. of Music (B.Mus., 1955), and in piano from Rudolf Serkin and Horszowski at the Curtis Inst. of Music in Philadelphia (diploma, 1959). After winning the Levintritt Competition in N.Y. in 1957, he toured widely, settling in 1965 in Toronto, and later became a naturalized Canadian citizen (1984). He was pianist-in-residence (1965–68) and an assoc. prof. (1968–72) at the Univ. of Toronto; in later years, he gave occasional master classes, but he devoted himself mainly to concertizing. In 1988 he exercised his Canadian citizenship by running as a candidate for Parliament. He was awarded honorary doctorates in 1987 by York Univ. in Toronto and Laurentian Univ. in Sudbury. In 1998 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. While Kuerti has won accolades for his fine performances of the Viennese classics, he has also played various works by contemporary composers. Among his compositions are 2 string quartets (1954, 1972), Linden Suite for Piano (1970), Magog for Cello and Piano (1972), Symphony “Epomeo” (1973), Violin Sonata (1973), 6 Arrows for Piano (1973), Piano Man Suite (1985), Piano Concerto (1985), and a Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano (1989).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire