František smoke (Born 4 February 1910 in Plzeň– 1996) was a Czech pianist and music teacher.
The son of a musical instrument dealer attended trade school in Pilsen, before he attended the Prague Conservatory piano and studied composition with Vítězslav Novák . Before he began his career as a pianist, he worked several months at the August Förster piano factory.
Smoke was as a chamber musician (including Praszke trio with Bruno Bělčík and František Smetana) and known concert pianist. He undertook concert tours of Europe, Japan and America. The piano compositions of Beethoven, Smetana, Liszt, Schumann and his teacher Novák were at the Centre of his repertoire. In Poland, he was in demand as an interpreter of Chopin's works.
Overall, more than 60 recordings exist of smoke. As President of the Czech society of Chopin, he was promoter of the Chopin Festival in Mariánské Lázne. From 1939, he taught more than forty years at the Prague Conservatory and taught by musicians such as Zuzana Růžičková, Ivan Klánský , Valentina Kameníkováand Petr Eben. . User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
