Luigi von Kunits

Who was Luigi von Kunits?

Luigi von Kunits was an Austrian conductor, composer, violinist, and pedagogue. He was the founding conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1922.

Dr. Kunits was born Ludwig Paul Maria in Vienna, Austria, where he studied with Jakob Grün, Otakar Ševčík, Anton Bruckner, and Eduard Hanslick. He died in Toronto, Canada.

It was in musical Vienna that Luigi von Kunits was born in 1870.

As its name suggests, the family was originally Serbian—something that has, and had, to be reckoned with, given the circumstances of the time. It had a bearing on Luigi's background and inheritance, as it also did now and then, on the course of his career.