Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Born: Salzburg, January 27, 1756,   Died: Vienna, December 5, 1791

At the age of four he could learn a piece of music in half an hour. At five he was playing the clavier incredibly well. At six he began composing, writing his first symphonies at the age of eight. He was constantly traveling all over Europe with his father, Leopold Mozart (1719-1787), a violinist, minor composer and Vice-Kapellmeister at the court of the Archbishop of Salzburg.

The influence of Mozart on the composers that followed cannot be emphasized too strongly. He was idolized by such late nineteenth century composers as Richard Wagner and Peter Tchaikovsky; and his music came to influence the neo-classical compositions ofIgor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev in the twentieth century.