Ivan Moravec
Czech pianist Ivan Moravec was born in Prague on 9 November 1930. He studied piano with Erna Grünfeld and then at the Prague Conservatoire and the Prague Academy of Arts, learning with Ilona Štěpánová-Kurzová. He also attended Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli's masterclasses.
His international career began by way of a tape recording of a Prague recital, circulated in the USA, and soon afterwards he visited New York to create what would be the first of many recordings for the Connoisseur Society label. Two years later, he was invited to play with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra.
Moravec's repertoire included music by Czech composers, plus Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Franck, Mozart, Prokofiev, Ravel and Robert Schumann. He also paid close attention to the condition of the pianos he played on, travelling with a small bag of voicing tools, and meeting the piano technicians to discuss any unevenness in sound.
He taught music in Prague, and gave masterclasses when on tour.
Ivan Moravec died in a Prague hospital on 27 July 2015, aged eighty-four.