Moritz Moszkowski

Born in 1854 into a wealthy Polish-Jewish family in Wrocław in what was then Prussia, Moritz Moszkowski was a prominent pianist, composer and educator. Home-trained, after his family moved to Dresden he entered the local music conservatory aged just 11. He began to compose during this time, continuing his education in Berlin, where he was enlisted to teach at the Neue Akademie der Tonkunst at age 17. Two years later, he made his debut as a pianist in Berlin and went on to perform around Germany, earning the praise of Franz Liszt. But by the mid-1880s, Moszkowski’s concert career was largely ended by a neurological condition in his right arm, and he turned his focus solely to composing and teaching. He was successful enough to relocate to Paris in 1897, but over the next decade his health declined and his popularity waned. As a composer he was prolific, writing more than 200 piano works, an area where his legacy lives on into the present.