Joseph Anton Steffan
Josef Antonín Štěpán or Joseph Anton Steffan (c. March 1726 – c. April 1797) was a Bohemian-Austrian classical era composer and harpsichordist.
Steffan was born in Kopidlno, near Hradec Králové, Bohemia in March 1726, the son of a schoolmaster and church organist. He received his first musical lessons from his father. In 1741 he fled from the Prussian army to Vienna. There, taken in the household of Count Schlick, he became a student of Georg Christoph Wagenseil. As one of the most respectable harpsichordist in Vienna he became the piano teacher of Maria Carolina and Marie Antoinette. In 1775, he contracted an eye disease which left him almost blind. He gave up his position at the court, but continued to compose. Almost forgotten he died in Vienna in April 1797.
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