Pianist, teacher and musicologist Antoine François Marmontel became Professor of Keyboard at the Paris Conservatory in 1848, succeeding Pierre Zimmermann, and beating out his former teacher Charles-Valentin Alkan.  He achieved renown as a pedagogue; among his many notable students were Georges Bizet, Vincent D'Indy, and Claude Debussy.  Marmontel was the author of a large number of pedagogical works, as well as musicological works which are among the best sources for the history of the piano and pianists.