George Bridgetower

[1] His playing impressed Beethoven, who made Bridgetower the original dedicatee of his Kreutzer Sonata after they presented its premiere performance.

George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower was born on 11 October 1778, in Biała Podlaska, Poland,[2] where his father worked for Prince Hieronim Wincenty Radziwiłł.

His father, John Frederick Bridgetower (né Joannis Friderici de Augusto Æthypois), was probably a West Indian (possibly from Barbados), although he also claimed to be an African prince, as stated in George's baptismal record.

[4] She was later possibly a domestic worker in the household of Sophie von Thurn und Taxis, who married Prince Hieronim Wincenty Radziwiłł in 1775.

[5] He exhibited considerable talent while still a child and gave successful violin concerts in Paris, London, Bath and Bristol in 1789.

In the spring of 1789, Bridgetower performed to great acclaim at the Abbaye de Panthemont in Paris, with Thomas Jefferson and his family in attendance.

He made a slight amendment to his part, which Beethoven gratefully accepted, jumping up to say "Noch einmal, mein lieber Bursch!"

Bridgetower returned to England, continued his musical career by teaching and performing, and was elected to the Royal Society of Musicians on 4 October 1807.

[13] A book, Sonata Mulattica by Rita Dove, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former United States poet laureate, was published in 2009.

[18] A BBC Radio 3 documentary in July 2021 explored the possibility that Thirlwell was wrong and Beethoven did not actually fall out with Bridgetower, but merely dedicated the manuscript to a different person than the later printed edition.