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==Life==
Anton Gregryevich Rubinstein was born on [[November 28]], 1829 in the village of Vikhvatinets in the district of Podolsk, Russia, (now known as [[W:Vikhvatinets|Ofatinţi]] in Transnistria, Republic of Moldova).The Rubinstein family moved to Moscow, Russia before the birth, in 1835, of his brother Nikolai, where his father opened a pencil factory. About 1840, the Rubinstein family became Orthodox Christians at the direction of his paternal grandfather. Becoming Orthodox Christians allowed the Rubinsteins to travel freely, something not permitted for Jews in Russia at the time.
Anton began piano lesson at the age of five under the guidance of his mother, Katherina Khristoferovna, née Lowenstein, who was a competent musician in her own right. At six and a half, Anton became a non-paying student of Alexander Villoing, a leading Moscow piano teacher, and made his first public appearance at the age of nine in a charity benefit concert. After having spent a year in Paris, France with Villoing in an unsuccessful attempt to audition at the Paris Conservatoire, due to a flood of young prodigies who flood the Paris scene, Anton was introduced to Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt in December 1840. Anton, with Villoing, then took an extended concert tour of Europe and Western Russia, returning to Moscow in June 1843. Then, while touring Russia Anton, with his brother Nikolai, he played for Tsar Nicholas I in St. Petersburg. At the time Anton was 14 years old and Nikolai eight.