About Mr. and Mrs. Olson

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Famous musicians we will share with you in our program

Mozart

Beethoven

Schubert

Chopin

Faure

Wittgenstein

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Classroom activities and worksheets

Online resources and web links

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart is considered the greatest musical genius of all time. He wrote a huge amount of music including 16 operas, 41 symphonies, 27 piano and 5 violin concerti, 25 string quartets and many other works. His greatest music is his operas.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria. His father, Leopold, was a composer and a violin teacher. In 1762 Leopold began taking young Mozart and his older sister, Maria Anna, on tours throughout Europe. They both played the harpsichord and piano in concerts at the various theatres, courts and castles. Mozart also played the violin and organ. During their travels, they even went to London where they met Johann Christian Bach (the youngest of J. S. Bach’s sons).

How does your childhood compare to that of Mozart's? Click here for a fun activity that will help you compare your childhood to his.

In addition to studying with his father, Mozart studied composition with Giovanni Battista Martini in Italy and with Franz Joseph Haydn in Vienna.

Mozart did not get along very well with his boss, the archbishop of Salzburg, and in 1777 he quit. He immediately went on a concert tour with his mother, traveling to Munich and Mannheim (Germany), and to Paris. His mom died when they were in Paris.

In 1781, Mozart moved to Vienna, but it was not until 1787 that Emperor Joseph II finally hired him as a court composer. And his salary was very low. Mozart’s financial situation became very bad, and he was in debt until he died.

During the last ten years of his life, Mozart wrote most of his piano concertos, many symphonies (including the famous ‘Prague,’and ‘Jupiter’ symphonies) and operas (including ‘The Marriage of Figaro,’ ‘Don Giovanni’ and ‘The Magic Flute’).

Mozart died before completing his final piece of music, the ‘Requiem.’ He died in Vienna on December 5, 1791, and was buried in a mass grave with many other people. No one knows why he got sick and died suddenly.