Eduard Steuermann was an Austrian (and later American) pianist and composer. The actress Salka Viertel

Salka Viertel

Salka Viertel was an actress and screenwriter. The pianist and composer Eduard Steuermann was her brother. Mrs. Viertel was born Salomea Steuermann in Sambor, a city then in the province of Galicia, which was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but today is in western Ukraine.-Career:She...

 was his sister. Steuermann married Clara Silvers, a pianist and noted music librarian, in 1949.

Steuermann studied piano with Vilém Kurz

Vilém Kurz

Vilém Kurz was a Czech pianist and piano teacher, a professor at the State Conservatory in Lwów and Vienna, and Prague Conservatory...

 at the Lviv Conservatory

Lviv Conservatory

The Lviv National Musical Academy, M. Lysenko is a state conservatory of Ukraine based in Lviv.-History:...

 and with Ferruccio Busoni

Ferruccio Busoni

Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...

 in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. He studied composition with Engelbert Humperdinck

Engelbert Humperdinck

Engelbert Humperdinck was a German composer, best known for his opera, Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck was born at Siegburg in the Rhine Province; at the age of 67 he died in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.-Life:After receiving piano lessons, Humperdinck produced his first composition...

 and Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...

, played the piano part in the first performance of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire

Pierrot Lunaire

Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds 'Pierrot lunaire' , commonly known simply as Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 , is a melodrama by Arnold Schoenberg...

, and premiered his Piano Concerto

Piano Concerto (Schoenberg)

Arnold Schoenberg's Piano Concerto, Op. 42 consists of four interconnected movements: Andante , Molto allegro , Adagio , and Giocoso . It features use of the twelve-tone technique and only one tone row, though he does at points take some liberties with the permutation of the row...

. He continued his association with Schoenberg as a pianist for the composer's Society for Private Musical Performances

Society for Private Musical Performances

The Society for Private Musical Performances was an organization founded in Vienna in the Autumn of 1918 by Arnold Schoenberg with the intention of making carefully rehearsed and comprehensible performances of available to genuinely interested members of the musical public...

 in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, and made an arrangement for piano trio of Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht

Verklärte Nacht

Verklärte Nacht , Op. 4, is a string sextet in one movement composed by Arnold Schoenberg in 1899 and his earliest important work...

. Additionally, he performed in the radio premiere of Schoenberg's "Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte" with the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under Artur Rodzinski

Artur Rodzinski

Artur Rodziński was a Polish conductor of opera and symphonic music. He is especially noted for his tenures as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic in the 1930s and 1940s.-Biography:...

 on November 26, 1944. In 1952 he was awarded the Schoenberg Medal by the International Society for Contemporary Music

International Society for Contemporary Music

The International Society for Contemporary Music is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music.ISCM was established in 1922, in Salzburg. Its core activity is the World Music Days Festival, held every year at a different location. The festival includes cutting edge productions...

. He also taught at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik at Darmstadt

Darmstadt

Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

.

In the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, where he emigrated in 1938, he was famed for his Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

 recitals of the 1950s and was a distinguished teacher, teaching at the Juilliard School

Juilliard School

The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...

 from 1952 to 1964. In America he was known as Edward Steuermann. Among the prominent performers who studied with Steuermann are Alfred Brendel

Alfred Brendel

Alfred Brendel KBE is an Austrian pianist, born in Czechoslovakia and a resident of the United Kingdom. He is also a poet and author.-Biography:...

, Jakob Gimpel

Jakob Gimpel

Jakob Gimpel was a Polish concert pianist and educator.Jakob Gimpel was born in Lvov...

, Moura Lympany

Moura Lympany

Dame Moura Lympany DBE was an English concert pianist.She was born as Mary Gertrude Johnstone at Saltash, Cornwall. Her father was an army officer who had served in World War I and her mother originally taught her the piano...

, Avraham Sternklar and Russell Sherman

Russell Sherman

Russell Sherman is an American classical pianist, educator and author.Russell Sherman made his debut at The Town Hall in New York at age 15; later studying piano with Edward Steuermann and composition with Erich Itor Kahn...

.

In 1989, The University of Nebraska Press

University of Nebraska Press

The University of Nebraska Press, founded in 1941, is a publisher of scholarly and popular-press books. It is the second-largest state university press in the United States and, including private institutions, ranks among the 10 largest university presses in the United States...

 published a collection of Steuermann's writings entitled, The Not Quite Innocent Bystander: Writings of Edward Steuermann. The book was co-edited by Clara Steuermann, David H. Porter and Gunther Schuller

Gunther Schuller

Gunther Schuller is an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, and jazz musician.- Biography and works :...

.