Mozart was the seventh and last child born to Leopold Mozart and Maria Anna. Only Wolfgang and his older sister Maria Anna, the fourth born, survived.

As a young child Mozart showed extraordinary ability in music. These precocious talents were carefully nurtured by his father, a gifted musician and composer in his own right.

Documentation from the period reports on a concert played in 1763 by the 7 year old and remarked on the kind of performance given.

He could play in an adult manner, improvise in various styles, accompany at sight, play with a cloth covering the keyboard, could play a bass part to a given theme and name any note that was sounded.

Before he was ten, the young prodigy along with his parents and sister had toured most of Western Europe. He also spent 15 months in England performing to notable royalty. As a 14 year old he spent 15 months performing in Italy.

He continued composing and performing up until his death by rheumatic inflammatory fever in Vienna at the age of 35, by which time he had composed over 650 works.

In his time he was not perceived as being the genius he is regarded as today but he left masterpieces in almost every genre, be it opera, solo piano, symphonic, concerto, chamber music or religious works and then there was the lighter stuff, the serenades and divertimentos, music for the background at banquets or important parties.

Mozart died young, and if we are to believe the stories he died penniless and was buried in a pauper’s grave.

In reality, he was buried in a mass grave as was in accordance with Viennese custom of the day and although he did have debts he was not completely penniless and left his wife and two young sons some financial wealth.