Zuzana Růžičková

Zuzana Růžičková

Genres: Czech, Classical, harpsichord, czech classical, cemballo

About Zuzana Růžičková

Zuzana Růžičková (Plzeň, Czechia, 14 January 1927 – 27 September 2017) was a Czech award-winning harpsichordist, whose work has garnered acclaim around the world. Born in former Czechoslovakia, Růžičková was an interpreter of classical and baroque music. She was the first harpsichordist to have recorded Bach's complete works for keyboard. These recordings were made over ten years in the 1960s and 1970s for Erato Records, and were remastered and newly released in 2016 by Warner Records/Erato. She was the wife of the late Czech composer Viktor Kalabis. As a teenager, Růžičková was imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps of Terezin and Auschwitz, and was then transported to the Bergen-Belsen death camp. She was liberated in April 1945 and returned to Plzeň later that year. Both Růžičková and Kalabis refused to join the Communist regime of Czechoslovakia that held power from 1948 to 1989, and they were consistently harassed as a result. Růžičková performed across the world for 50 years; she made over 100 records; and taught such prominent musicians as Christopher Hogwood, Ketil Haugsand, Jaroslav Tůma, Monika Knoblochová, Vaclav Luks, and Mahan Esfahani. Růžičková studied music but during 1941–45 she was sent to a Nazi concentration camp. Afterwards she continued the study at music school in Plzeň and Prague. Since 1951 she taught at the musical academy in Prague (AMU, since 1990 as professor). During 1978–82 she taught at musical academy in Bratislava. She recorded 65 albums (among them complete harpsichord (cembalo) works of Johann Sebastian Bach). Her husband Viktor Kalabis was a composer.

Taken from Last.fm

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