Frederic Chopin
An insight into one of history's most celebrated composers
Personal life
Frédéric François Chopin was born in the village of Żelazowa Wola, situated 46 kilometers (29 miles) west of Warsaw, in Poland. According to parish records, Chopin was born on the 22nd of February 1810. In contradiction, his family would instead insist that he was born on the 1st of March. As a result, the latter is universally accepted as Chopin’s true birth date.
Chopin’s father, Nicolas, was a Frenchman who had emigrated to Poland in 1787 at the age of sixteen. He worked as a tutor for the children of Polish aristocrats, and in 1806 met and married Tekla Justyna Krzyżanowska. She was a poor relative of the Skarbek family—one of the households that Nicolas worked for.
The family itself had many artistic leanings. In fact, it was quoted by his parents that baby Frederic was ‘strangely moved whenever he heard his mother or eldest sister play the piano’. By the time he turned six, Chopin was already attempting to write new music and reproduce pieces he heard. The following year, he would start piano lessons with the elderly musician Wojciech Zywny. The relatively simplistic instruction techniques that his teacher employed were soon left behind by Chopin, who would instead go on to craft a truly original approach to playing the piano, ultimately propelling him into the world of professional composition.
Career
Chopin’s parents, who were wholeheartedly devoted to their son’s musical development, raised enough money to send him to Vienna, Austria. There, he would make his performance debut in 1829. Upon his return home he began to write his renowned Piano Concerto №2 in F Minor.
From here, Chopin’s success as a musician bloomed, taking western Europe by storm. After beginning his travels across Europe in 1830, Chopin would eventually find himself in Paris during late September of 1831. There, he met artists and other renowned figures in the music industry, connections that would open up many opportunities to showcase his talent and eventually achieve celebrity status. Among the many people he met in Paris, some of the most notable were Hector Berlioz, Ferdinand Hiller, Eugène Delacroix, Alfred de Vigny, Heinrich Heine, and even Franz Liszt…