Louis Moreau Gottschalk

Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano pieces. He spent most of his working career outside of the United States. Gottschalk was born to a Jewish businessman from London and a white Haitian Creole in New Orleans, where he was exposed to a wide variety of musical traditions. He had six brothers and sisters, five of whom were half-si... more

Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano pieces. He spent most of his working career outside of the United States. Gottschalk was born to a Jewish businessman from London and a white Haitian Creole in New Orleans, where he was exposed to a wide variety of musical traditions. He had six brothers and sisters, five of whom were half-siblings by his father's mulatto mistress. His family lived for a time in a tiny cottage at Royal and Esplanade in the Vieux Carré. Louis later moved in with relatives at 518 Conti Street; his grandmother Buslé and his nurse Sally had both been born in Saint-Domingue (later known as Haiti). Gottschalk played the piano from an early age and was soon recognized as a wunderkind by the New Orleans bourgeois establishment. In 1840, he gave his informal public debut at the new St. Charles Hotel. Only two years later at the age of 13, Gottschalk left... less