Zuzana Růžičková

Zuzana Růžičková ( born January 14, 1927 in Plzeň) is a Czech harpsichordist.

Zuzana Růžičková showed early musical talent. In 1942, she was - because of Jewish origin - and later deported with her family to Theresienstadt to Auschwitz, had to perform forced labor, and at last into the camp of Bergen -Belsen. From her family only she and her mother survived this time. She then studied music in Plzeň and 1947-1951 at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague ( piano with Albín Šíma and František Rauch, harpsichord with Oldrich Kredba ). In 1951, she first appeared as harpsichordist to the public.

Winning the ARD Music Competition in Munich in 1956 was the starting point of an international solo career. In 1962 she founded together with Václav Neumann, the Prague Chamber Soloists. She regularly appeared together with chamber music partners such as Josef Suk, Aurèle Nicolet, Pierre Fournier and Jean -Pierre Rampal. Master classes, she headed for example in Zurich, Stuttgart, Budapest and Tokyo. From 1978 to 1982 she was a visiting professor at the Music Academy in Bratislava. In 1990 she was appointed professor at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts.

Růžičkovás repertoire ranges from the English virginalists to modern times, however, a focus is Johann Sebastian Bach, whose complete works for harpsichord she recorded in 1975 for the French label Erato. As a soloist she has participated in numerous Bach festivals, including Stuttgart and Oregon, in part. Among the numerous awards and honors that have been bestowed her, in recent times, the Chevalier de l' Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture (2003) and awards of the Czech state for her life's work.

1952 married Zuzana Růžičková the Czech composer Viktor Kalabis ( 1923-2006 ), who wrote several works for them.