Adolf von Henselt was a Russian and German composer and pianist. He was born in Schwabach on May 9, 1814. His family moved to Munich in 1817. He began violin lessons at age three and took up the piano two years later, studying in part with Anton Halm.
In 1832, Henselt received a scholarship from King Ludwig I of Bavaria and studied piano with Johann Nepomuk Hummel in Weimar for eight months. His Munich debut on November 29 that year was a major success. He studied composition with Simon Sechter in Vienna until 1834, then toured cities in Germany and Russia. During the tour, he met Frédéric Chopin in Carlsbad in 1836. In 1837 he married Rosalie Vogel.
In 1838, Henselt was appointed court pianist to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia. From 1857, he served as inspector general of the imperial educational institutions for girls of noble families in St Petersburg. He left the concert stage at age 35, but continued to influence musical life through his work and teaching. His students included Alfred Heinrich Ehrlich, Nikolai Zverev, Ingeborg Stark, Ali Lindberg, Nikolai Ber, and Vladimir Stasov. From 1872 to 1875 he edited the music journal The Novelist. He was ennobled in 1876 and taught at the St Petersburg Conservatory as a professor in 1887–88. He died on October 10, 1889, while receiving treatment at the Warmbrunn spa.
Henselt was known for his soft touch, legato, polished passagework, and command of wide finger stretches. His repertoire included works by J. S. Bach, Carl Maria von Weber, Chopin, and Franz Liszt. He wrote piano works and concert transcriptions of operatic and orchestral music, Russian folk songs, and works by Russian composers. His compositions include a piano concerto in F minor, a piano trio in A minor, twelve Concert Études and twelve Salon Études, the Poem of Love, and the nocturne The Fountain. His output was relatively small compared with that of his contemporaries. In 1872–75 he also edited editions of sonatas and works by Beethoven, Weber, Hummel, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Bertini, Cramer, and Moscheles, and published a guide to piano teaching in 1868.