Frédéric François Chopin

Meet my favorite composer of all time, Frédéric François Chopin. Chopin was born in Żelazowa Wola in the Duchy of Warsaw in 1810 and grew up in Warsaw. In the summer of 2019, I had the wonderful opportunity to perform at Zelazowa Wola. The house was so little that the piano was set inside of the little house and the audience listened to the sounds through the windows as I performed.

Chopin's talent for the piano was recognized at an early age. In 1817, when he was 7, he composed two Polonaises in G minor and B-flat major.

In March and October of 1830, Chopin left Warsaw aged 20 with the intention of visiting Germany and Italy for further study. He quickly established ties with many young composers including Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz, and Felix Mendelssohn. You might have heard of the phrase, "Hats off, gentlemen! A genius," which Schumann published in a music magazine in 1831 after hearing the young Chopin's Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" by Mozart. 

In 1832, he moved to Paris, where he socialized with high society and was known as an excellent piano teacher. He composed many pieces for piano in addition to chamber and piano concertos, which are filled with melodic beauties that bring people to feel Chopin's nostalgia for Poland.

Chopin died in an apartment in Place Vendôme in Paris on October 17, 1849, at the age of 39 from tuberculosis. His body, without the heart, was buried at the cemetery of Père-Lachaise in Paris, and his heart was interred at the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Warsaw. People gather at the Basilica of the Holy Cross to listen to Mozart's Requiem on October 17, the anniversary of the death of Frédéric Chopin.