Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791
Born in Salzburg, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his early death at the age of 35. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized.
He composed more than 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and his influence is profound on subsequent Western art music.
Many beginner level piano music was written by Mozart at the age of 5 – 7. He wrote many piano sonatas and theme and variations. One of these is a Theme and 12 Variations on the melody “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman” www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDMvvelPXj0 which is commonly known as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”.