Career
At one concert in France in 1850, he combined pizzicato and arco in the same piece, then removed all but one string of his violin to play an aria from Meyerbeer"s Robert le diable. These antics only made the audience laugh. He also wrote some pieces for violin with only one string, and with five strings (which he called "pentakords").
He also concertised with Theodor Leschetizky, Anton Rubinstein and Alexander Dargomyzhsky.
In 1853 he was appointed violinist to the Tsar of Russia. In 1861 he became the inaugural Director of the revived Institute of Music.
On one occasion he introduced the violinist Leopold Auer to Ignacy January Paderewski. The then unknown young pianist was chosen to accompany Auer at a recital at the Institute.
His students included Stanisław Barcewicz, Zygmunt Noskowski, Stanisław Taborowski and Konstanty Gorski.
In 1878 he performed at the Paris International Exhibition along with Henryk Wieniawski. Apollinaire de Kontski composed a violin concerto, a quartet for four violins, 24 Études-Caprices for violin and flute, transcriptions, variations, opera fantaisies (his "Fantasia on Motives from Lucia di Lammermoor" was famous in his day) and numerous other virtuoso pieces, all now forgotten. He died in his home city in 1879, aged 53.