Stanislav Heller (15 September 1924 – 23 January 2000) was a

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

ist and

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

of Czech origin. Born in

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

, he studied piano with

Vilém Kurz Vilém Kurz (23 December 1872 – 25 May 1945) was a Czechs, Czech pianist and piano teacher. Career Kurz was born in Havlíčkův Brod, Německý Brod, Bohemia in 23 December 1873. He became a professor at the State Conservatory in Lviv and Vi ...

and organ with Bedřich Wiederman at the

Prague Conservatoire The Prague Conservatory () is a public music school in Prague, Czech Republic, founded in 1808. Currently, the school offers four- or six-year courses, which can be compared to the level of a high school diploma in other countries. Graduates c ...

. His family emigrated to South America after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and Stanislav Heller moved then to London in 1947 and later became a British subject. He started a career as a concert harpsichordist there (one of the first concert harpsichordists in the 20th century) and also toured with

Rafael Kubelík Rafael Jeroným Kubelík, KBE (29 June 1914 – 11 August 1996) was a Czech conductor and composer. The son of a distinguished violinist, Jan Kubelík, he was trained in Prague and made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at the a ...

. In 1968 he moved to

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

as Professor of harpsichord and early chamber music at the

Hochschule für Musik A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger in ...

External links

* Czech harpsichordists German harpsichordists British harpsichordists British people of Czech descent Musicians from Brno 1924 births 2000 deaths Academic staff of the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg 20th-century German classical musicians 20th-century British musicians Czechoslovak emigrants to the United Kingdom Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom {{UK-musician-stub