Joseph Joachim

Joseph Joachim (1831-1907), Hungarian violinist and composer, born in Kittsee, Austria. He performed in public in Budapest at age seven. From 1841 to 1843 he studied in Vienna, and in 1843 in Leipzig, under the German composer Felix Mendelssohn. Joachim was concertmaster and solo violinist to George V, king of Hannover, and head of the music school in the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin. He was the first major virtuoso performer whose repertory included many works of other composers, past and contemporary, and not merely works of his own creation. A friend of such classically oriented composers as Johannes Brahms and Giuseppi Verdi, he was one of the finest performers of his era. His own compositions were greatly influenced by the style of Robert Schumann; the best known is the Hungarian Concerto for Violin, op. 11.