Wilhelm Kempff (November 25, 1895 – May 23, 1991) was a renowned German pianist and composer. Early life Wilhelm Walter Friedrich Kempff was born in Jüterbog near Berlin and grew up in nearby Potsdam where his father was a royal music director and organist at St. Nicolai Church. His grandfather was also an organist and his brother Georg became director of church music at the University of Erlangen. Kempff studied music first in Potsdam and then in Berlin. Pianist Kempff toured very widely in Europe and much of the rest of the world. Between 1936 and 1979 he performed ten times in Japan and a small Japanese island was named Kempu-san in his honor. Kempff made his first London appearance in 1951 and in New York in 1964. He gave his last public performance in Paris in 1981, then retired for health reasons (Parkinson's Disease). He died in Positano, Italy at the age of 95. He is survived by five child