JosefHofmann was one of the greatest piano prodigies in music history.
Although Hofmann later remarked that he didn't mind giving performances as a child, a common outgrowth of "prodigism," (a term coined by violinist Jascha Heifetz) is burnout, stunted emotional development, or both.
Hofmann had the distinction of being a student of both composer Moritz Moszkowski and the renowned Anton Rubinstein, who (with his brother Nicholas) laid the foundation for the Russian school of pianism.
Hofmann was also gifted mechanically and invented mechanisms for the piano and especially automobiles, with numerous patents to his credit.
Hofmann spent most of his later career in the United States, where he taught at the Curtis Institute of Music, of which he was Director until 1938.
Hofmann never played it, however, a fact mis-attributed by many to his small hands; another of Hofmann's teachers, Moritz Moszkowski, also dedicated a piano concerto to Hofmann which he never played.
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