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Johann Gottfried Eckard (Eckhardt) (1735-1809) was a German pianist and composer. Born in Augsburg, he was apprenticed to a copper maker. He moved to Paris in 1758 and stayed there until his death. He was an early champion of the fortepiano over the harpsichord, and was as a composer stylistically somewhat similar to C. P. E. Bach; as a performer he was a famed improviser. Mozart, who had visited Paris in 1763/64, based a movement of his third piano concerto on a sonata movement by Eckhard.
