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Paradis

Maria Theresia von Paradis (1759–1824) was an Austrian pianist, singer, and educator who was blind from early childhood and became one of the most celebrated performers of her era, championed by Haydn, Salieri, and Mozart, who wrote his Piano Concerto in B flat major K. 456 for her in 1784. Earlier in life she had been a patient of Franz Anton Mesmer, whose "animal magnetism" treatment claimed to have temporarily restored her sight before collapsing in scandal and recrimination. In 1808 she founded a music institute in Vienna for blind musicians and spent her final decades as a teacher and composer.

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