Friedrich Wilhelm Kalkbrenner (1784-1849) was a German pianist and composer.
Son of Christian Kalkbrenner (1755-1806), a Jewish musician of Cassel, Friedrich was educated at the Paris Conservatoire, and soon began to play in public. From 1814 to 1823 he was well known as a brilliant performer and a successful teacher in London, and then settled in Paris, dying at Enghien, near there, in 1849.
He became a member of the Paris piano-manufacturing firm of Pleyel & Co., and made a fortune by his business and his art combined. His numerous compositions are less remembered now than his instruction-book, with studies, which have had considerable vogue among pianists.
