1 March 1810: Birth of Frédéric Chopin, Polish-French Composer

Frédéric François Chopin (or Fryderyk Franciszek Szopen in Polish) was born on 1 March 1810 in the Duchy of Warsaw to a French father and a Polish mother. His father, Nicholas, took work as a tutor to aristocratic families and later became a French teacher at the Warsaw lyceum.

Chopin loved music from an early age and, during his infancy, would listen to his mother and sister play the piano. He started piano lessons at the age of seven and was allowed to develop his own original style of playing. Chopin wrote his Polonaise in G Minor at this early age and made his first public performance at a charity concert aged just eight. At eleven he performed for Alexander I, the Russian tsar.

His individuality was further encouraged by the director of the Warsaw Conservatory of Music, Joseph Elsner, when Chopin was enrolled there at the age of sixteen. But his parents thought that he would benefit from experiencing life outside Warsaw, so he was sent to Vienna, via Berlin, where his performances were a great success. On returning home he wrote his two piano concertos.

A second visit to Vienna in 1830 coincided with the Polish revolt against Russian rule and so Chopin made his way to Paris. As the centre of European culture, Paris offered Chopin the company of other composers, such as Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz, and the freedom to teach and compose.

Chopin disliked performing for large crowds, but his sensitivity and elegance made him a favourite in the homes of the wealthy, playing small recitals and teaching. The financial security this brought allowed him to devote much of his time to composing.

It was in Paris in 1836 that Chopin met Aurore Dudevant, better known as the novelist George Sand. They began an affair in 1838 and Chopin accompanied Sand and her two children to a villa on Majorca for the winter. Here he became ill with tuberculosis, a condition that would cause him bouts of ill-health for the rest of his life.

For the next few years Chopin was happy and creative. He continued his teaching and wrote many of his best works during the summers spent at Sand’s country house at Nohant. But in 1847 his relationship with Sand ended and Chopin’s creativity declined.

The following year Chopin embarked on a tour of Britain and gave his last public performance at London’s Guildhall on 16 November 1848. Exhausted and ill, Chopin returned to Paris where he died of tuberculosis on 17 October 1849. His heart was sent to the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw while the rest of his body was buried at the cemetery of Père Lachaise.

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