Cipriani Potter
English composer, conductor, pianist and teacher Philip Cipriani Hambly Potter was born in London into a musical family on 3 October 1792, and began to learn music at the age of seven. His first teacher was his father, violinist, flautist and teacher Richard Huddleston Potter. Later, Cipriani Potter studied with Thomas Attwood, William Crotch and Joseph Wölfl.
He joined the Philharmonic Society as an associate member at the beginning of his career, and he featured in concerts both as performer and composer.
He travelled to Austria, Germany and Italy, meeting Beethoven and becoming a fan of Rossini's operas.
Back in London, he programmed many Mozart piano concertos, gave the first English performances of Beethoven's third and fourth piano concertos and later performed works by Brahms and Robert Schumann. He began to teach at the new Royal Academy of Music, where his students included William Sterndale Bennett, and later he was the Academy's principal for nearly three decades, where he was known as a teacher of great influence.
Cipriani Potter died in London on 26 September 1871, aged seventy-eight.