Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński
Polish composer, conductor and pianist Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński was born in Romanów (on the Poland/Ukraine border) on 15 February 1807. His initial musical training came from his father, a composer, music director and violinist. From 1825 he studied privately in Warsaw with Józef Elsner, continuing later with the same teacher at the Warsaw Conservatory, where one of his classmates was Fryderyck Chopin.
Dobrzyński toured Germany as a piano soloist and was also active conducting operas (including his own Monbar, or the Filibusters) and concerts. He created his own orchestra in 1857 and was instrumental in founding a music institute.
He died in Warsaw on 9 October 1867, leaving a piano concerto, a cantata, an orchestral fantasia and much lieder, piano and chamber music. One of his most successful works was his second symphony, the Characteristic Symphony of 1831, which won a prize in Vienna.