Musician. He was a renowned Polish-American concert pianist, composer, music instructor, and inventor. Born Józef Kazimierz Hofmann, the only son of two children, Josef Hofmann's father was a composer, conductor, and pianist, and his mother a singer. When he was a child, the family relocated to Berlin, Germany. A child prodigy, his debut was a recital in Warsaw at the age of five; then, at nine years old, he gave a long series of concerts throughout France, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Great Britain, which were followed with another series of concerts in the United States when he was eleven. At the age of 12, he was probably the first pianist of note to record on a phonograph. Starting in 1892 as one of his last students, he became the private pupil of Anton Rubinstein, Russian pianist and founder of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. His adult debut was on March 14, 1894, in Hamburg's Symphonic Assembly Hall, playing Rubinstein's Piano Concerto No. 4 in D minor. In 1912-1913, he performed 21 concerts in St. Petersburg without repeating a single piece, playing 255 different works from memory. He resumed his public career at age 18, and from 1898, he resided mainly in the United States. In his recitals, he used the same folding chair and an old Steinway piano. In great demand, he gave 151 recitals at Carnegie Hall in New York city. From 1926 to 1938, he taught music at the Curtis Institute of Music, a private educational facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He became the institute's director in 1927. Impacting his professional and personal life, he became an alcoholic yet remained a skilled pianist until he was forced to leave the institute in 1938, and his artistic interest declined. He gave his last recital at Carnegie Hall in 1946. During his lifetime, he composed a symphony, ballet music, five piano concerti, and solo piano music, some published under the pseudonym Michel Dvorsky. He published three instructional texts on playing piano. He also had more than 70 patents, including mechanical inventions for cars and airplanes, home heating, and piano improvements.