Franz Schmidt, also Ferenc Schmidt (22 December 1874 – 11 February 1939) was an Austro-Hungarian composer, cellist and pianist. – and to a Hungarian mother, Mária Ravasz. He was a Roman Catholic.His earliest teacher was his mother, Mária Ravasz, an accomplished pianist, who gave him a systematic instruction in the keyboard works of J. S. Bach. He received a foundation in theory from Felizian Josef Moczik , the organist at the Franciscan church in Pressburg. He studied piano briefly with Theodor Leschetizky, with whom he clashed. He moved to Vienna with his family in 1888, and studied at the Vienna Conservatory (composition with Robert Fuchs, cello with Ferdinand Hellmesberger, and, for a few lessons, counterpoint with Anton Bruckner, who was already seriously ill at that time), graduating "with excellence" in 1896.

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