About Mr. and Mrs. Olson

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Famous musicians we will share with you in our program

Mozart

Beethoven

Schubert

Chopin

Faure

Wittgenstein

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Classroom activities and worksheets

Online resources and web links

Paul Wittgenstein

The pianist Paul Wittgenstein (vit ken sh tine) was born in Vienna in 1887. Mr. Wittgenstein loved his home country of Austria so much, that he volunteered for the army and became a soldier during World War I. In a battle at the beginning of the war, he lost his right arm.

Despite this horrible loss, he kept practicing the piano, playing with just his left hand. After the war was over, he worked very hard, practicing 8 to 10 hours every day. He worked so hard that he was able to play the piano with just one hand. He became a world-famous pianist, playing in concerts and with orchestras with only his left hand.

Mr Wittgenstein became amazingly good at playing the piano with just one hand. He got so good, that he was able to play pieces that are very, very hard, even for a pianist with two hands. Many famous composers wrote special one-handed piano music for him to play in his concerts.

After the moved to the United States before World War II, and eventually became a US citizen. He died in New York state in 1961.