Frédéric Chopin

He met Hummel in Warsaw when he was 18, and Czerny in Vienna a year later. He spent much of his adult life in Paris, where he befriended Berlioz, Bellini, Heller, Hiller, Mendelssohn, Delacroix, Hugo, Liszt, Dumas, Franchomme, Balzac and Heine; also Sand, whom he was not initially attracted to, but then spent 10 years with. Paris was a home for other Polish exiles like Mickiewicz. He met Schumann in Leipzig and Dickens during a 7-month stay in London. He only visited Carlyle for an hour, but told his wife that their piano was out of tune.