Ferdinand Hummel was a German harp player, pianist, conductor and composer. Hummel started as a child prodigy, and his father, who was a flute player in the Royal Orchestra in Berlin, took care of his son's first musical training instructing him in both the piano and the harp from the age of four (some say seven) gaining a King Wilhelm von Preussen Stipendium, so he could study with Antonio Zamara at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna.