Biography of Hubert Kufferath

The Kufferath family from Mülheim, a city in the Ruhr region located in western Germany, has been deeply involved with music since the 18th century, producing numerous distinguished musicians in the 19th century. Hubert Kufferath, born in 1818, studied music from an early age, like his older brother, influenced by his music-loving father and his much older brother. He learned flute, violin, and piano concurrently, attaining a certain standard in all of them. His brother Johann Hermann (1797–1864), 21 years his senior, was an excellent violinist, composer, and conductor, and a leading musician in Utrecht, Netherlands. Hubert, partly due to his brother's wishes, continued his violin studies under his brother in his mid-teens. After several years of instruction from his brother, he went to Cologne and studied under Franz Hartmann, a renowned master in the city.

In 1839, the young Kufferath, who had already become a virtuoso violinist, participated in a music festival in Düsseldorf, Germany. Mendelssohn, upon hearing his performance, invited him to Leipzig and undertook to teach him composition. In Leipzig, he also had the opportunity to study with Moritz Hauptmann (1792–1868), an excellent theorist and composer. Furthermore, from around this time, he began to seriously study the piano, but he did not cease his violin studies, later seeking instruction from Ferdinand David (1810–1873), who would become a violin professor at the Leipzig Conservatory.

After two years of studying rigorous composition methods under Mendelssohn, Kufferath returned to Cologne in 1841, where he conducted the local choral society and contributed to the revitalization of the city's musical and cultural activities. In 1843, during a visit to Paris, he appeared as a pianist at the salon of Zimmermann, a piano professor at the Conservatoire, performing fugues by his teacher Mendelssohn and his own etudes prior to a performance by the French master Alkan.

In 1844, after completing his concert tour, Kufferath settled in Belgium. Here, he played a major role in teaching piano and composition, conducting choral societies, and organizing chamber music concerts. Kufferath's home, as he became a central figure in Belgian music through his international activities, developed into a musical salon where violin masters Henryk Wieniawski and Charles de Bériot, and pianist-composer Clara Schumann, gathered. Thereafter, he dedicated himself to composition in Belgium, producing works across a wide range of genres, including symphonies, chamber music, and piano music, and his capabilities were highly esteemed. From 1872, having already reached a stage of maturity, he taught counterpoint and fugue at the Brussels Conservatory, dedicating himself to instructing the next generation of musicians.