Zuzana Růžičková was a Czech harpsichordist and educator of Jewish origin. She was born in Pilsen on January 14, 1927, and died in Prague on September 27, 2017.
After recovering from tuberculosis at age nine, she began piano lessons with Marie Provaníková, who introduced her to Bach’s music and encouraged her to study the harpsichord. Růžičková later entered the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where she specialized in harpsichord and early music. She began teaching piano to composers in 1950; one of her students was the composer Viktor Kalabis, whom she married in 1952.
In 1956, Růžičková won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. She went on to perform across Europe and became closely associated with Bach’s music. In 1965, she signed a contract to record Bach’s complete works. She made about 100 albums, and her complete Bach recordings were reissued in 2016.
Růžičková marked 50 years of concert activity with a performance at Prague’s Rudolfinum in January 2003. She stopped performing publicly in 2004 and, from 2006, took part in musical events and committees supporting the preservation of early music and the development of young musicians. She was president of the Viktor Kalabis and Zuzana Růžičková Foundation and was named People's Artist of Czechoslovakia in 1989. She was widely known as a leading harpsichordist.