Ludwig Paul Maria "Luigi" von Kunits (20 July 1870 – 8 October 1931) was a Canadian conductor, composer, violinist, and pedagogue.

After playing with the Austrian Orchestra at the Chicago World's Fair, and taking the first prize trophy in an open competition, he decided to remain in the U.S.

It was in Pittsburgh that he befriended Joseph Henry Gittings, a gifted organist and impresario, and Harriet Jane, his beautiful daughter.

Last but not least, von Kunits could foresee that he might need some free time to settle some unresolved family affairs in Vienna.

Moriz Rosenthal, Louis Rée (1861–1939), Vladimir de Pachmann, Emil Pauer, Fritz Kreisler and Eugène Ysaÿe all came to pay homage to a fine musician as was customary in music circles of the day.

Many of his closest friends from his childhood days came long distances to see him, but it was his father's presence that gave him the deepest pleasure.

Von Kunits, whose first love was conducting, was recovering from a mild heart attack, and so decided in favor of Toronto instead.

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.

It was not an easy task for a sensitive musician and scholar, man of honor and simple kindness to face this ordeal," so wrote von Kunits' daughter, Mrs. Aglaia Edwards, in Mayfair Magazine.

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.

With an initial complement of some sixty players, it soon became the eighty-five member Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1927, offering full-length concerts.

By drawing into it some of the world's finest instrumentalists, Stokowski succeeded in creating the distinctive "Philadelphia sound" which brought his orchestra international acclaim.

Other von Kunits's pupils of note were the U.S. composer Charles Wakefield Cadman, long-forgotten violinist and recording pioneer Vera Barstow, Canadian composers and violinists Harry Adaskin, Murray Adaskin, Maurice Solway, Eugene Kash, Grace McDonald.

After nine years of struggle to win a place for a first-rate orchestra in Canada, von Kunits died on October 8, 1931.

Many distinguished musicians were his pupils, including Vera Barstow, Murray Adaskin, Arthur Hartmann, Alberto Guerrero, Grace McDonald, and others.