Joseph Wieniawski was a Russian-Polish pianist, composer, and music educator. He was born in Lublin to an assimilated Jewish family. His brothers included Henryk and Julian Wieniawski, and he was the twin brother of Aleksander Wieniawski.
Wieniawski studied at the Paris Conservatory with Pierre Zimmermann and Antoine Marmontel, and studied composition and chamber music with Charles-Valentin Alkan. From 1853 he studied with Franz Liszt in Weimar, then continued his composition studies with Adolph Bernhard Marx in Berlin. From childhood, he gave concerts in France and other European countries, including piano-duet performances with Henryk.
He taught at the Moscow Conservatory from 1866 to 1869. From 1870 he lived and worked in Warsaw, where he helped found the Warsaw Music Society and led it from 1875 to 1877. During this period, he established a mixed choir at the society and engaged Alexander Michałowski to work with it. From 1878 until his death, he was a professor at the Brussels Conservatory.
As a pianist, Wieniawski championed Frédéric Chopin’s music, performing all of Chopin’s études and giving concerts devoted entirely to his works. He also performed in ensembles with Joseph Joachim, Leopold Auer, and Alfredo Piatti. His compositions were mainly piano works in genres associated with Chopin, including études, waltzes, polonaises, mazurkas, and ballades. His larger works include a Symphony in D major, Op. 49 (1890), a Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 20 (1859), sonatas for violin and piano and for cello and piano, and the overture William the Silent, Op. 43 (1887). He died in Brussels in 1912 and was buried at Ixelles Cemetery.
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