Ludwig Paul Maria "Luigi" von Kunits (20 July 1870 – 8 October 1931) was a Canadian conductor, composer, violinist, and pedagogue. Born in Austria, he studied at the Vienna Conservatory. He later moved to Canada where he was the founding conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1922.

During this time, however, he had composed a Violin Concerto and he had been asked to perform it with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. It was so well received that he had no trouble obtaining a position with the Austrian Orchestra as it assistant conductor and concertmaster. It was also at this juncture that he decided to embark on a tour of the United States in 1893, abandoning the career chosen for him by his mother. His parents were heart-broken at his sudden departure.

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.

In Chicago, he taught violin and composition and led a String Quartet he personally founded. He came to Pittsburgh which had been without a professional symphony orchestra until 1895 when British conductor Frederic Archer took the baton. With Archer at the helm, von Kunits had organized and shaped an ensemble into a respectable orchestra. During the next 14 years, von Kunits was the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's concertmaster, first violin, and assistant conductor to Frederic Archer (from 1896 to 1898), Victor Herbert (from 1898 to 1904), and finally Emil Pauer (from 1904 to 1910) when the orchestra came into financial difficulties and was dissolved.

Also, it was in the United States that he first became aware of his Serbian roots. At Chicago's Columbian Exposition he witnessed Nikola Tesla's alternating current system running everything mechanical, not to mention the illumination of the entire exposition itself. In Pittsburgh, he saw Serbian steelworkers forming one of the oldest Serbian fraternal organizations (the Serb National Federation) in 1901, and in 1907, merging with Michael I. Pupin's Sloga (Unity).

It was in Pittsburgh that he befriended Joseph Henry Gittings, a gifted organist and impresario, and Harriet Jane, his beautiful daughter. After a brief courtship marriage became a foregone conclusion. The honeymoon was in the offing and von Kunits decided to take a trip with his new bride to introduce her to his parents. Last but not least, von Kunits could foresee that he might need some free time to settle some unresolved family affairs in Vienna. On returning for the first time since he left in 1893, he found his father and mother sorely strained by the seven years between them.

After a long honeymoon, they returned to Pittsburgh, where their two daughters were born. As an enthusiastic Greek scholar and a bit of an eccentric he had them duly christened Nausicaa, for the daughter of Alcinous in Homer's Odyssey, and Aglaia, for the youngest of the Three Charities (Graces) in Classical mythology. Aside from the Pittsburgh Symphony, he directed a series of String Quartet concertos, taught at the Pittsburgh Conservatory, and later at his own school.

Then in 1910, he made a decision to return to Vienna to give concerts throughout Europe, appearing not only in recitals as a guest artist with orchestras, but also in chamber music concerts. Back from his concert tours, he was widely acclaimed by his peers. 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. Between recitals, he remained active by teaching at the world-famous Patony Conservatory in Vienna. 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. The start of the First Balkan War in 1912, pitting Serbia and its Balkan allies against the Ottoman Empire, suddenly awakened an intense fervor of patriotism, equally shared by his father.