Herr Padel was a native of Christiansfeld, Schleswig, and first came to England at the age of seven years; he received his early training from an uncle, a professor of music in Harrogate. At the age of sixteen he became a student of the Leipsic Conservatoire under Plaidy, Mocheles, Reinecke and Hauptmann. Herr Padel received a special prize for piano-playing, and there, for the first time, he played Schumann’s Concerto in public. In 1865 he settled in London. His uncle at Harrogate, having extended his work as a teacher in York, retired and was succeeded by Herr Drouet, a brilliant pianist and pupil of Mendelssohn. Drouet retired in 1868, and according to a previously made arrangement, the practice in York was transferred to Herr Padel, whose success as a teacher and whose devotion to the cause of classical music have become so well known as to require no further comment.
(From the prospectus, 1913-1914)