Pianist Antonin Kubalek

In Fall of 1968 he went into exile to Canada, where he very quickly became one of the most respected pianists. In 1969 he began to teach: 1969-75 in the Brodie School of Music and Modern Dance in Toronto, 1975- 6 in Blue Mountain School of Music in Collingwood, Ontario, in Toronto at the Glenn Gould Music School, from 1979 on at the Royal Conservatory of Music, 1996-2003 at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto, and at the same time 1997- 2002 at York University. He also taught at American schools and universities. As a soloist he performed with the Toronto Symphonic Orchestra conducted by Karel Ancerl and other orchestras and recorded for Canadian radio and television. His recordings were awarded a number of prizes, and two of them were nominated for the prestigious Juno Awards. Among them was also one of many records of Czech music which he promoted. He constantly attracted attention to Czech music and recorded piano compositions by Smetana, Dvorak, Janacek and Josef Suk. He was also admired by the famous Glenn Gould who asked him to record on CD the work of the Brno native Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Antonin Kubalek was the only artist whom Gould honored in that way. He also was an outstanding interpreter of contemporary music, Czech as well as Canadian. In 1974 he went on a concert tour of Europe. He visited Czechoslovakia for the first time after 23 years in 1991, when he initiated a cycle of piano recitals with a concert in Smetana Hall in the Rudolfinum, where he also performed in 1996. For his extraordinary performance at a solo recital at the prestigious music festival during the Prague Spring of 2002 and his untiring promotion of Czech music abroad he was awarded the annual prize of the Czech musical council. The same year he also received a prize from Unesco, and in 2003 he initiated the Antonin Kubalek Piano Courses on the Golden Mountains in the Czech Republic. The Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra dedicated a concert in honor of Mozart's birthday on January 25, 2011 in Kubalek's memory.