Rafael Joseffy was a pianist and composer. He was born at Hunfalu , Hungary, July 3, 1852. He studied in Budapest with Brauer, the teacher of Stephen Heller. In 1866 he went to Leipsic, where his teachers were Moscheles and Wenzel. In 1868 he became a pupil of Tausig in Berlin, remaining with him for two years. Later he spent two summers with Liszt in Weimar.

He made his debut in Berlin in 1872 and was immediately acclaimed as a master pianist of great brilliance. He moved to the United States in 1879, where he lived in New York in the winter and at Tarrytown on the Hudson in the summer. His style was broad and comprehensive, yet his playing had a certain incisiveness which those who heard him will never forget.

In his earlier years he produced some very attractive compositions for the pianoforte. Later in life he virtually retired from the concert platform and devoted his attention to teaching. He was abnormally retiring in his disposition. The late Henry Wolfsohn claimed to have offered Joseffy huge sums for concert tours but that the pianist found concert life so severe upon his nerves that he could not be brought to accept. He preferred the smaller income of the teacher with its other compensations to the glare of the footlights. Joseffy was sincere in his convictions to the last extreme. He care absolutely nothing for fame or applause. To him his art was supreme and other things mattered little. American gave him his home and he conferred unmeasured honor upon the whole musical history of his adopted country.