Josef Ksawery Antoni Franciszek [Josef] Elsner (29/06/1769 - 18/04/1854), a Polish composer, conductor, teacher and writer. Elsner was Chopin's teacher. He was born in Grotkow (Silesia). The son of a maker of musical instruments, he was destined for medicine, but became choir-boy and later violinist and singer at the Breslau theatre. He received harmony lessons from Forster in Breslau ; then read scores and was intimate with musicians in Vienna ; and became first violin of the theatre in 1791, and musical director of the theatre in Lemberg in 1792. In 1799 he settled in Warsaw, where he was director of German and Polish theatres ; and in 1815, with Princess Zamoiska, founded a music society, which was transformed into the Warsaw Conservatory in 1821, when he left the theatre and became first director and professor of composition in the new institution. He retired in 1830, when political troubles closed the Conservatory, but continued composition. During a visit to Paris some of his works were performed at the Tuileries and Saint-Cloud. He may be regarded as the creator of Polish opera. His operas are light and in the old style of Pair and Mayr ; his church music is rather dramatic ; and his compositions generally show ease and purity, though lack of originality and thorough study.