About Rudolf Firkušný
Rudolf Firkušný (Czech: [ˈrudolf ˈfɪrkuʃniː]; 11 February 1912 – 19 July 1994) was a Czech and American classical pianist. == Life == Firkušný was born on 11 February 1912 in Napajedla, Moravia, Austria-Hungary. He was the younger brother of the musicologist Leoš Firkušný. Rudolf Firkušný started his musical studies with the composers Leoš Janáček and Josef Suk, and the pianist Vilém Kurz. Later he studied with the legendary pianists Alfred Cortot and Artur Schnabel. He began performing on the continent of Europe in the 1920s, and made his debuts in London in 1933 and New York in 1938. He escaped the Nazis in 1939, fled to Paris, later settled in New York and eventually became a U.S. citizen. Firkušný had a broad repertoire, performing the works of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, and Brahms as well as Mussorgsky and Debussy. However, he became known especially for his performances of the Czech composers Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, and Bohuslav Martinů (who wrote a number of works for him). Firkušný championed Dvořák's only piano concerto, which he played with many different conductors and orchestras around the world and also recorded several times.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.