Written by Aditeya Goyal, a 13-year-old student

There have been a lot of great music composers in the past. One of the best known amongst them was the Polish composer, Frederic Chopin. His musical interest came from both his parents – his mother who was a piano teacher and his father who was a flute and violin expert.

Chopin started composing songs at the age of 7 and was undeniably a child prodigy. His first compositions were two polonaises, one in G minor and the other in B-flat major. He started performing just one year later.

His first major performance was in Vienna in 1829, when he was 19 years old. However, it was his second performance confirmed his success. He moved to Paris in 1831, and after this his fame grew as a piano teacher and a composer.  

He wrote 61 mazurkas, 16 polonaises, 26 preludes, 27 etudes, 21 nocturnes, 20 waltzes, 3 sonatas, 4 ballades, 4 scherzos, 4 impromptus, and many individual pieces.

Although he composed about 200 pieces, he only gave a total of 30 public concerts in his lifetime. He was shy and he would always play the piano in the dark. Even when he would play at a gathering or a party he would ask to extinguish the lights in the room. Chopin did not marry but did once become engaged to a lady called Maria Wodzinski. However, the engagement was called off by Maria’s parents the next year.

In 1849, he died at the young age of 39 due to tuberculosis. His body was buried in Paris and his heart was taken to Warsaw as requested by him – because he belonged to Warsaw, he wanted his heart to live there. And it’s still there, even today.

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