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The Most Famous

MUSICIANS from Austria

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This page contains a list of the greatest Austrian Musicians. The pantheon dataset contains 2,662 Musicians, 24 of which were born in Austria. This makes Austria the birth place of the 18th most number of Musicians behind Spain and Finland.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Austrian Musicians of all time. This list of famous Austrian Musicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Austrian Musicians.

Photo of Franz Liszt

1. Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886)

With an HPI of 82.13, Franz Liszt is the most famous Austrian Musician.  His biography has been translated into 97 different languages on wikipedia.

Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most prolific and influential composers of his era, and his piano works continue to be widely performed and recorded.Liszt gained renown during the 1830s for his skill as a pianist. Regarded as one of the greatest pianists of the time, he toured Europe during the 1830s and 1840s, often playing for charity. In these years, Liszt developed a reputation for his powerful performances as well as his physical attractiveness. In a phenomenon dubbed "Lisztomania", he rose to a degree of stardom and popularity among the public not experienced by the virtuosos who preceded him. During this period and into his later life, Liszt was a friend, musical promoter and benefactor to many composers of his time, including Hector Berlioz, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann and Richard Wagner, among others. Alongside Wagner, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the New German School, a progressive group of composers involved in the "War of the Romantics" who developed ideas of programmatic music and harmonic experimentation. Liszt taught piano performance to hundreds of students throughout his life, many of whom went on to become notable performers. He left behind an extensive and diverse body of work that influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated 20th-century ideas and trends. Among Liszt's musical contributions were the concept of the symphonic poem, innovations in thematic transformation and impressionism in music, and the invention of the masterclass as a method of teaching performance. In a radical departure from his earlier compositional styles, many of Liszt's later works also feature experiments in atonality, foreshadowing developments in 20th-century classical music.

Photo of Maria Anna Mozart

2. Maria Anna Mozart (1751 - 1829)

With an HPI of 70.76, Maria Anna Mozart is the 2nd most famous Austrian Musician.  Her biography has been translated into 42 different languages.

Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia Mozart (30 July 1751 – 29 October 1829), called "Marianne" and nicknamed Nannerl, was a musician, the older sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) and daughter of Leopold (1719–1787) and Anna Maria Mozart (1720–1778).

Photo of Baroness Mary Vetsera

3. Baroness Mary Vetsera (1871 - 1889)

With an HPI of 69.27, Baroness Mary Vetsera is the 3rd most famous Austrian Musician.  Her biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Baroness Marie Alexandrine "Mary" von Vetsera (19 March 1871 – 30 January 1889) was an Austrian noblewoman and the mistress of Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria. Vetsera and the crown prince were found dead at his hunting lodge in Mayerling on 30 January 1889, following an apparent murder-suicide, which is known as the Mayerling incident.

Photo of Karl Thomas Mozart

4. Karl Thomas Mozart (1784 - 1858)

With an HPI of 66.22, Karl Thomas Mozart is the 4th most famous Austrian Musician.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Karl Thomas Mozart (21 September 1784 – 31 October 1858) was the second son and the elder of the two surviving sons of Wolfgang and Constanze Mozart. The other was Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart.

Photo of Fritz Kreisler

5. Fritz Kreisler (1875 - 1962)

With an HPI of 64.59, Fritz Kreisler is the 5th most famous Austrian Musician.  His biography has been translated into 39 different languages.

Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler (February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962) was an Austrian-born American violinist and composer. One of the most noted violin masters of his day, and regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately recognizable as his own. Although it derived in many respects from the Franco-Belgian school, his style is nonetheless reminiscent of the gemütlich (cozy) lifestyle of pre-war Vienna.

Photo of Joseph Joachim

6. Joseph Joachim (1831 - 1907)

With an HPI of 62.69, Joseph Joachim is the 6th most famous Austrian Musician.  His biography has been translated into 35 different languages.

Joseph Joachim (28 June 1831 – 15 August 1907) was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher who made an international career, based in Hanover and Berlin. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century. Joachim studied violin early, beginning in Buda at age five, then in Vienna and Leipzig. He made his debut in London in 1844, playing Ludwig van Beethoven's Violin Concerto, with Felix Mendelssohn conducting. He returned to London many times throughout life. After years of teaching at the Leipzig Conservatory and playing as principal violinist of the Gewandhausorchester, he moved to Weimar in 1848, where Franz Liszt established cultural life. From 1852, Joachim served at the court of Hanover, playing principal violin in the opera and conducting concerts, with months of free time in summer for concert tours. In 1853, he was invited by Robert Schumann to the Lower Rhine Music Festival, where he met Clara Schumann and Brahms, with whom he performed for years to come. In 1879, he premiered Brahms' violin concerto with Brahms as conductor. He married Amalie, an opera singer, in 1863, who gave up her career; the couple had six children. Joachim quit service in Hanover in 1865, and the family moved to Berlin, where he was entrusted with founding and directing a new department at the Royal Conservatory, for performing music. He formed a string quartet, and kept performing chamber music on tours. His playing was recorded in 1903.

Photo of Anton Diabelli

7. Anton Diabelli (1781 - 1858)

With an HPI of 62.28, Anton Diabelli is the 7th most famous Austrian Musician.  His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

Anton (or Antonio) Diabelli (5 September 1781 – 8 April 1858) was an Austrian music publisher, editor and composer. Best known in his time as a publisher, he is most familiar today as the composer of the waltz on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his set of thirty-three Diabelli Variations.

Photo of Maria Theresia von Paradis

8. Maria Theresia von Paradis (1759 - 1824)

With an HPI of 60.12, Maria Theresia von Paradis is the 8th most famous Austrian Musician.  Her biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Maria Theresia von Paradis (May 15, 1759 – February 1, 1824) was an Austrian musician and composer who lost her sight at an early age, and for whom her close friend Mozart may have written his Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-flat major. She was also in contact with Salieri, Haydn, and Gluck.

Photo of Joe Zawinul

9. Joe Zawinul (1932 - 2007)

With an HPI of 59.46, Joe Zawinul is the 9th most famous Austrian Musician.  His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

Josef Erich Zawinul ( ZOV-in-əl; 7 July 1932 – 11 September 2007) was an Austrian jazz and jazz fusion keyboardist and composer. First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with Miles Davis and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, a musical genre that combined jazz with rock. He co-founded the groups Weather Report and The Zawinul Syndicate. He pioneered the use of electric piano and synthesizer, and was named "Best Electric Keyboardist" twenty-eight times by the readers of DownBeat magazine.

Photo of Paul Wittgenstein

10. Paul Wittgenstein (1887 - 1961)

With an HPI of 59.43, Paul Wittgenstein is the 10th most famous Austrian Musician.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Paul Wittgenstein (November 5, 1887 – March 3, 1961) was an Austrian-American concert pianist notable for commissioning new piano concerti for the left hand alone, following the amputation of his right arm during the First World War. He devised novel techniques, including pedal and hand-movement combinations, that allowed him to play chords previously regarded as impossible for a five-fingered pianist. He was an older brother of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Pantheon has 24 people classified as musicians born between 1751 and 1978. Of these 24, 3 (12.50%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living musicians include Parov Stelar, Madita, and Johanna Beisteiner. The most famous deceased musicians include Franz Liszt, Maria Anna Mozart, and Baroness Mary Vetsera. As of April 2022, 3 new musicians have been added to Pantheon including Ingrid Haebler, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, and Joseph Woelfl.

Living Musicians

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Deceased Musicians

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Newly Added Musicians (2022)

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Which Musicians were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 20 most globally memorable Musicians since 1700.