Chopin

Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, known in French as Frédéric Chopin, was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers for piano. Born on 1 March 1810 in Żelazowa Wola, near Warsaw, he spent much of his career in Paris, where he died on 17 October 1849.

Chopin composed primarily for solo piano and, to a lesser extent, for piano with orchestra, producing a prolific and stylistically distinctive body of work. His output includes nocturnes, mazurkas, polonaises, etudes, preludes, waltzes, ballades, scherzos, and two piano concertos (in E minor, Op. 11, and in F minor, Op. 21). His music is noted for lyric melodic lines, refined pianistic textures, advanced harmony, and the frequent use of rubato. It often integrates Polish national elements with cosmopolitan Romantic idioms, blending intimate character pieces with virtuosic display.

Chopin grew up in Poland, studied at the Warsaw Conservatory with Józef Elsner, and achieved early fame as a child prodigy. He left Poland for Paris in 1831, where he lived for the rest of his life, earning a reputation in salons and concert halls and serving as a teacher to a distinguished clientele.

Chopin's influence on piano music remains profound. He died in Paris in 1849 of tuberculosis at age 39. His heart was buried in Warsaw's Church of the Holy Cross, while his body rests in Paris's Père Lachaise Cemetery.