Jan Ladislav Dussek was born in Caslav, Bohemia. His parents were both musicians - the father Jan Josef Dussek was organist and composer, the mother Veronika was a harpist. From childhood on, Dussek received piano instruction and later on organ instruction. He attended the Jesuit elementary school in Iglau and grammar school in the mining town of Kutna Hora.
Following just two years of school and studies at the Charles University in Prague he traveled in 1779 in that part of the Netherlands which is known today as Belgium. Here Dussek appeared for the first time as a pianist, eventually finding employment at the municipal court of Wilhelm the V as a piano teacher. In 1782 he is reported to have been in Hamburg, where was most likely a student of C.P.E. Bach, who held him in high esteem and who no doubt provided a decisive impulse for Dussek's further artistic development.
In 1783 found Dussek in Russia where he appeared at the court of the Czar in St.Petersburg; shortly thereafter he had to flee the country in the wake of the plot against Katharine II and later found refuge at the court of Prince Karl Radziwill in Lithuania. From 1784 - 1786 he conzertized again in Germany, not only on the piano, but also on the glassharmonica.
He then settled in Paris where his playing found favor with the queen Marie-Antoinette. Early in 1789 Dussek left France for England. In 1792 he married the singer, pianist and harpist Sofia, the daughter of the music publisher Domenico Corri and founded the publishing house of Corri, Dussek & Co. Josef Haydn made Dussek's acquaintance during his London visits.
In London, Dussek was among the first to encourage piano makers to extend the 5-octave compass of their fortepianos and to strive for a more robust tone. Dussek's concerts must have been very effective and he is reported to have appeared in together with Josef Haydn in the famous Salomon-Concerts.
Dussek's own publishing business amassed such debts that Dussek was forced to leave family and debtors behind, fleeing London for Hamburg. Dussek spent the years 1800 - 1807 mainly in Germany. The composer and pianist Jan Václav Tomasek mentions that Dussek was the first pianist to place the piano sideways on the concert podium - most likely so that the audience could admire his attractive profile.
By 1804, Dussek could afford to enter the service of Prince Lois Ferdinand of Prussia as an unsalaried pianist and Kapellmeister. Louis Ferdinand and Dussek were close friends who both enjoyed "spirited" festivities in which other prominent colleagues such as Louis Spohr and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe also participated. Louis Ferdinand was also an outstanding pianist and composer.
Louis Ferdinand died in the battle of Saalfeld in 1806 at the hands of Napoleon's swordsmen. On the occasion of Louis Ferdinand's death, Dussek composed perhaps his best-known piano sonata Elegie harmonique sur la mort de Prince Louis Ferdinand de Prusse - op. 61.
Following a short period of employment at the court of Prince von Isenburg, Dussek went finally to Paris, this time in the service of Talleyrand. He appeared in numerous concerts in which he played now on French pianos. In the last years of his life, Dussek seems to have become uncharacteristically phlegmatic and - not disinclined to the physical pleasures, be became dangerously obese and died ultimately of gout.
