Henry Vieuxtemps was one of the greatest violinists of his time. He was
born at Verviers, in Belgium, in 1820, and was brought up in a musical
atmosphere. So early did his talent develop, that he played a concerto
of Rode in public at the age of six, and the following year made a tour
with his father and his teacher, Lecloux, during which he had the good
fortune to meet De Bériot, before whom he played. During four years he
remained a pupil of De Bériot, and when that artist left Paris, in 1831,
Vieuxtemps went to Brussels, where he practised hard, but without a
teacher, until 1833, when he again set out on a prolonged concert tour.

From this time on he seems to have spent the greater part of his time in
travelling, for which he had a passion. He visited all parts of Europe
and met most of the celebrated musicians of the day. Spohr, Molique,
Schumann, Paganini, Henselt, and Richard Wagner were among the
celebrities whom he met, and in his tours he was associated with
Servais, Thalberg, and other well-known artists.

Not content with Europe as a field for conquest, he visited America in
1844, and again in 1857 and in 1870.

He was offered many excellent positions, some of which he held for a
time and others he declined. In 1845 he married Josephine Eder, an
eminent pianist of Vienna, and shortly after was appointed solo
violinist to the Emperor of Russia, relinquishing that post six years
later in order to travel again. He was professor at the Brussels
conservatoire from 1871 to 1873, and in 1872 he was elected a member of
the Academic Royale of Belgium, on which occasion he read a memoir of
Étienne Jean Soubre.