Friedrich Wilhelm Michael Kalkbrenner

When Frédéric Chopin came to Paris, Kalkbrenner suggested that Chopin could benefit by studying in one of Kalkbrenner's schools. It was not until the late 1830s that Kalkbrenner's reputation was surpassed by the likes of Chopin, Thalberg and Liszt. Author of a famous method of piano playing (1831) which was in print until the late 19th century, he ran in Paris what is sometimes called a "factory for aspiring virtuosos" and taught scores of pupils from as far away as Cuba. His pupils included Marie Pleyel, Marie Schauff, and Camille-Marie Stamaty. Through Stamaty, Kalkbrenner's piano method was passed on to Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Camille Saint-Saëns.
He was one of the few composers to achieve financial success. Chopin dedicated his first piano concerto to him. Kalkbrenner created transcriptions of Beethoven's nine symphonies for solo piano which were published by Giovanni Canti from 1842-1844; decades before Liszt did the same.