In addition to his training as a hosier, he received a musical education with his uncle Johann Christian Kittel. Already at the age of 15 years he worked first as an organist at Erfurt Barfuesserkirche and thus succeeded his uncle in this position. This was followed by concert tours on which he made a name for himself as a piano virtuoso.
In 1780 with the support of the governor of Erfurt, Karl Theodor von Dalberg, he introduced the so-called winter concerts as a permanent institution. Within the framework of this event series he also got acquainted with Goethe.
In 1790 he went to London, where he performed together with Joseph Haydn. His concert tours through Europe led him i.a. to Riga, St. Petersburg and Moscow. In Petersburg he was named Imperial Russian conductor by Empress Catherine the Great. Here he gave concerts and participated in the founding of a music publishing company, which became the goal to publish the works of German classics and simultaneously enliven contemporary Russian composers, publicize their works also in this way for the general public.
He later moved with his family to Moscow, where he worked for more than thirty years.
There he died in 1822.
His compositional work includes sonatas, cantatas, etudes and instrumental compositions, especially for piano.
His daughter was the opera singer Henriette Eberwein, his son Carl Eberwein.
