Johann, aware of Leopold Mozart's success in this field (with son Wolfgang and daughter Nannerl), attempted to promote his son as a child prodigy, claiming that Beethoven was six years old (he was seven) in the posters of his first public performance in March 1778 in Cologne. Little Ludwig's first music teacher was his father. Later he had other local teachers: the court organist Gilles van den Eeden, Tobias Friedrich Pfeiffer - a family friend who taught him how to play keyboard instruments, Franz Rovantini - a relative who taught him violin and viola, and the court concertmaster Franz Anton Ries who taught him how to play on a violin.
