Samuel Antek began his violin studies in Chicago and was then invited to New York to become a pupil and protégé of the famous teacher Leopold Auer. He soon won a fellowship to attend the Juilliard Foundation and, following his New York debut at Town Hall, played solo concerts extensively. In 1937, Mr. Antek was selected to become a first violinist for the NBC Symphony, an orchestra specially created by RCA for the legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini. He was a member of the orchestra for all of its seventeen years, from 1937 to 1954. With the support and encouragement of the Maestro and the guidance of conductor Pierre Monteux, Antek was able to launch his own career as a conductor. While continuing to play first violin for NBC, he was appointed musical director and conductor of the New Jersey Symphony in 1947; was named the associate conductor of the Chicago Symphony under Fritz Reiner; and, after inaugurating his distinctive Young People's Concerts series in New Jersey, was soon named the director of all Young People's Concerts of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was invited to guest conduct many of the nation's major orchestras, including the NBC Symphony, Houston Symphony, and Buffalo Philharmonic, among others. Samuel Antek died suddenly at age forty-nine in January 1958. This Was Toscanini, his unique evaluation of the Maestro, was published posthumously.
Lucy Antek Johnson, Samuel Antek's daughter, was born and raised in New York City. After studying music, fine art, and ballet, she was drawn to the world of television production and spent her entire career in the entertainment industry, working with such producers as Martin Charnin, Harry Belafonte, David Susskind, and Roone Arledge. When she moved to Los Angeles in 1978, she produced movies for television, then joined the ranks of NBC as a network executive. She soon worked her way up to senior vice president of daytime and children's programs for CBS, a position she held for fourteen years. Lucy and her husband, Bill Klein, live in Connecticut, where she has served on the Westport Library's board of trustees and continues to work with the library on special programming projects. She paints, writes, and-every so often-gets up the nerve to sit at the piano and play a favorite Bach or Chopin prelude.