Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Who is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, then part of the Holy Roman Empire, and became one of the most influential composers of the Classical era. A child prodigy, he was performing across the courts of Europe by age six under the guidance of his father Leopold. Over a short life of thirty-five years he produced more than six hundred works spanning symphonies, concertos, chamber music, sacred works, and opera. His operas, including The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and The Magic Flute, remain cornerstones of the repertoire, as do his later symphonies and piano concertos. Mozart spent his most productive years in Vienna as a freelance composer and performer. He died in 1791 while working on his unfinished Requiem and was buried in a common grave, though his music has endured as a pinnacle of Western art.

Sources: Maynard Solomon, Mozart: A Life, 1995 · H. C. Robbins Landon, Mozart: The Golden Years, 1989 · Ludwig von Köchel, Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis (Köchel catalogue), 1862