Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg Germany on May 7, 1833 and died on April 3, 1897. His father was an accomplished musician of several instruments, and Johannes lived with music from his birth. At the age of seven his father hired Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel to teach Johannes the piano. The family was very poor, and Johannes soon used his piano skills to earn money for the household by playing in the brothels and dance halls near the city docks. He met Robert Schumann when he was twenty years old, and Schumann was so impressed with the young man's talents that he wrote an article acclaiming his talents in the journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Johannes remained very close to the Schumann family and when Schumann died Johannes moved to Dusseldorf and for two years looked after the surviving Schumann family. After his fame and talents for composing had matured, he led the musical scene in Vienna Austria for most of his career as a pianist and composer. He is best remembered for his piano concerto's but he also composed for chamber ensembles and symphony orchestras. Brahms was a perfectionist, and he destroyed many of his compositions, never sharing them with the public.