Artist database

15 May 1813, Pest - 15 January 1888, Paris

István Heller (Stephen Heller), pianist and composer of Hungarian origin, was born in Pest on 15 May 1813. At the age of 12 he was already performing in concerts. His father later took him to Vienna, where he studied with Carl Czerny and Anton Halm. At his father's instigation, he went on a concert tour to Slovakia (Upper Hungary), and afterwards became piano accompanist for a theatre company in Lőcse, Slovakia, before travelling on to Poland and Germany, where he fell seriously ill in Augsburg. It was during this enforced rest that he began to compose and came into contact with Robert Schumann and German Romanticism.

In 1838 he was invited by Friedrich Kalkbrenner to Paris, which was to be his future home. Here, while continuing to compose, he also wrote musical articles for Kalkbrenner's magazine. Later, he met the music publisher Maurice Schlesinger, who published his first works, which also gave him the financial independence he had long sought. He wrote mainly etudes, and these works, together with music teaching, eventually brought him increasing recognition both abroad and in Hungary. In the last years of his life, his eyesight deteriorated considerably, which also hindered his composing. He died in Paris on 15 January 1988, aged 75.