Johann Nepomuk Hummel

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837) – Austrian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher of Slovakian origins. He displayed great talent as a young child – his playing impressed Mozart, who gave Hummel lessons. After a four-year-long concert tour of Europe, the teenage Hummel returned to Vienna, where he studied with Johann Albrechtsberger, Antonio Salieri and Joseph Haydn. During the 1820s and 30s, his popular compositions reached many countries, including Warsaw, where the young Fryderyk Chopin became familiar with them; Hummel’s output bore an indisputable influence on the Polish composer’s early virtuosic works.