Luigi Von Kunits - Back To North America

Back To North America

The von Kunitses sailed to Canada with their newborn son, Astyanax, aptly named in the Classical tradition. His daughters were left at a boarding school to complete their education. But with the outbreak of the First World War, von Kunits got the news that his estate was lost, confiscated by the Austrians who were at war with Serbia. Von Kunits came from a line of Serbian Hussars who fought Ottoman occupiers at the border of Austria and Hungary. When Turks threatened to invade Western Europe, one of Kunich's ancestors rescued a prince of the realm who was badly wounded in battle, and consequently received a patent of nobility for his heroic action.

His daughters soon joined the family fold in Toronto. He was at Toronto's Canadian Academy of Music, eagerly awaiting the arrival of his students, when World War I broke out in August 1914. When Canada entered the war, von Kunits found himself in an untenable position even in Toronto. He was considered an enemy alien even though he renounced his allegiance to Austria. Canada, gripped as it was in war fever, engaged in a fiercely hostile attack on anything or anyone Austrian and German. He persistently maintained that he was by descent a Serbian and had severed his ties with Austria for that reason. Abuse and antagonism was felt by von Kunits throughout the war years. It was a tragic time for him. He had to report in line with all the rest of alien born once or twice a week. It included not only Austrians, Hungarians, and Germans, but even Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Czechs, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Rumanians, Bulgarians and other nationalities who came from territories ruled by the Habsburg Monarchy. He was luckier than most, however, many ex-Austrian citizens were sent to concentration camps as "enemy aliens" to perform forced labor in steel mills, forestry, mines, etc. (Recently the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund was created to recognize this sad period in Canadian history.)

"He would arrive at home white and drawn after these sessions. It was not an easy task for a sensetive musician and scholar, man of honor and simple kindness to face this ordeal," so wrote von Kunits' daughter, Mrs. Aglaia Edwards, in Mayfair Magazine. "He never uttered a word of complaint. Stoically he realized he simply had to report and that was the thing to do." But he did not withdraw completely from his concert work, he played at concerts where and when he could. He lived a secluded life in Toronto which was to be his home for the rest of his life. During this period he founded The Canadian Music Journal, taught violin and harmony to his admiring students, instilling the love of chamber music in them all. The war over, von Kunits returned to the concert platform with a recital in Massey Hall. The sorrowful waiting through the long years finally brought fruit. Von Kunits, who renounced his Austrian citizenship at the beginning of the war, finally became a Canadian citizen.

Although Toronto had been a major music centre in Canada until 1917, in 1922 it was still without a professional symphony orchestra. Two young musicians, Louis Gesensway and Abe Fenboque, decided to approach von Kunits to tackle the difficult task of establishing the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. (check 12) The Toronto Star had, about that time, mentioned an attempt by Flora Eaton to get Sergei Rachmaninoff for the podium, but it all came to naught.

The sixty musicians who turned up for the first rehearsal were all from the orchestral pits of the silent-movie houses; the only free time they had for concerts was between matinees and evening shows. Von Kunits was assured that "there were sufficient skilled players, some of whom had played in Frank Welsman's Toronto Orchestra -- an organization founded in 1907 and which had become a casualty of the war in 1918 -- and some of whom, as von Kunits knew, were better musicians than their theatre jobs allowed them to show."

After some reflection, von Kunits accepted. Through the winter, he coached and encouraged some of his more advanced students so that they might be ready. He worked with theatre house musicians. And he spent sleepless nights re-scoring the music for his players and their instruments, keeping in mind their capacities.

By spring, von Kunits had brought the orchestra together, making it coalesce from its disparate elements was not easy. One musician of that time recalled a rehearsal when von Kunits could not get any kind of warmth and color from the cello section, even though the piece was marked appassionata.

"He tapped his music stand, looked solemnly at the whole string section, and said quietly: 'Would all those men under 60 please vibrate.' The difference at the next attempt was more notable."