Ferdinand (von) Hiller (24 October 1811 – 11 May 1885) was a German composer, conductor, writer and music-director.

Ferdinand Hiller was born to a wealthy Jewish family in Frankfurt am Main, where his father Justus (originally Isaac Hildesheim) was a merchant in English textiles – a business eventually continued by Ferdinand’s brother Joseph. Hiller’s talent was discovered early and he was taught piano by the leading Frankfurt musician Alois Schmitt, violin by Hofmann, and harmony and counterpoint by Vollweiler; at 10 he performed a Mozart concerto in public; and two years later, he produced his first composition.

In 1822 the 13-year old Felix Mendelssohn entered his life. The Mendelssohn family was at that time staying briefly in Frankfurt and the young Hiller visited them where he was immensely impressed by the playing of Felix (and even more so by that of his sister Fanny Mendelssohn). When their acquaintance was renewed in 1825 the two boys found an immediate close friendship, which was to last until 1843. Hiller tactfully describes their falling out as arising from "social, and not from personal susceptibilities." But in fact it seems to have been more to do with Hiller’s succession to Mendelssohn as director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1843...

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Sari Biro (March 24, 1912 – September 2, 1990) was a Hungarian pianist.



Sari Biro was born in Budapest in Hungary. She began piano lessons privately at the age of six, and received a scholarship to study in the Franz Liszt Academy. There she quickly distinguished herself, so the she was chosen as the soloist in the inaugural concert of the Hungarian national broadcasting system, playing under the baton of Erno von Dohnáni.

Arriving in the US in 1939, Biro quickly established herself as a recitalist there. Based in New York, for the next 18 years she toured extensively, as well as making numerous radio broadcasts which were notable for the wide repertoire they introduced. She also made an innovative 13-week series of live television programmes in 1958, in which she talked about and performed a wide range of music. She championed both early and contemporary music, performing Giancarlo Menotti Darius Milhaud, Leon Weiner (with whom she had studied in Budapest) and, of course, Bartók, who admired her interpretations of his works. She also made the first recording by a woman of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition in 1951...

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Harriet Cohen CBE (2 December 1895 – 13 November 1967) was a British pianist.


Harriet Cohen was born in London and studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music under Tobias Matthay, having won the Ada Lewis scholarship at the age of 12. She made her debut at a Chappell's Sunday concert at the Queen's Hall a year later. Her first major appearance was in 1920 when she appeared at the Wigmore Hall in a joint recital with the tenor John Coates.

She became particularly associated with contemporary British music, giving the world premiere of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Piano Concerto (which was written for her) and recording Edward Elgar's Piano Quintet with the Stratton Quartet under the composer's supervision. A number of composers wrote music specifically for her, including John Ireland, Béla Bartók, Ernest Bloch and E. J. Moeran, and particularly Sir Arnold Bax (Cohen's lover), who wrote most of his piano pieces for her. This includes the music for David Lean's 1948 film version of Oliver Twist. He also composed Concertino for Left Hand for her after she lost the use of her right hand in 1948...

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Ilona Eibenschütz (8 May 1872 in Budapest, Hungary – 21 May 1967 in London, England) was a Hungarian pianist.



She received her first instruction in music from her cousin Albert Eibenschütz. At the age of five, Franz Liszt is said to have played at a concert with her. She later studied with Carl Marek, and from 1878 to 1885 at the Leipzig Conservatory under Hans Schmitt, and then, from 1885 to 1890, with Clara Schumann in Frankfurt. There she met Johannes Brahms in 1886, and she knew him until his death in 1897. She heard him play his own music on various occasions, and in 1926, she wrote (as Mrs. Carl Derenburg) for The Musical Times, "[Brahms] played as if he were improvising, with heart and soul, sometimes humming to himself, forgetting everything around him. His playing was altogether grand and noble, like his compositions."...

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Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856) was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era.



Schumann left the study of law to return to music, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. He had been assured by his teacher Friedrich Wieck that he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing.
Schumann's published compositions were written exclusively for the piano until 1840; he later composed works for piano and orchestra; many Lieder (songs for voice and piano); four symphonies; an opera; and other orchestral, choral, and chamber works. His writings about music appeared mostly in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Journal for Music), a Leipzig-based publication which he jointly founded...

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