Chopin

Frédéric Chopin, born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin on 1 March 1810 in Żelazowa Wola (Duchy of Warsaw) and died on 17 October 1849 in Paris, was a composer and pianist of Franco-Polish descent, known for a body of work that is almost exclusively for piano, always including the instrument.

After training at the Warsaw Conservatory and beginning his career in Poland and Vienna, he left Poland and, at the age of twenty-one, settled in France: his father, Nicolas Chopin, came from a family in Lorraine. In France, he drew inspiration from the ferment of the Parisian piano world and from the memory of his wounded homeland. There he met George Sand, who would be his companion for nine years.

Recognised as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic period, Frédéric Chopin is also one of the most celebrated pianists of the nineteenth century. His music remains among the most performed today and is still essential to understanding the universal piano repertoire. Together with Franz Liszt, he is regarded as the father of modern piano technique and influenced a whole line of modern composers, including Claude Debussy, Alexander Scriabin, Maurice Ravel and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

After the collapse of Poland at the start of the Second World War, the use of Chopin's memory by the authorities of the Polish People's Republic contributed to the country's cultural reconstruction. Since 1927, one of the most prestigious classical piano competitions, held in Warsaw, has been devoted entirely to his work.