apart from louis moreau gottschalk, stamaty's most famous pupil was camille saint-saëns. saint-saëns started with stamaty when he was seven years old (1842) and he stayed with him until he was fourteen (1849), whence he went on to the paris conservatoire. although saint-saëns in his later life was very critical, even dismissive of stamaty's teaching, it is a fact that saint-saëns under stamaty's tutelage developed into a first rate pianist who maintained the high level of his playing all his life, well into his eighties.