Frédéric Chopin

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A picture of Chopin painted by Eugène Delacroix in 1838. The picture used to show George Sand as well, but the painting has been cut in half

Frédéric Chopin (March 1 or February 22 1810 - October 17 1849) was a Polish man who played the piano and wrote music. He is the most important composer from Poland. Although some of his music for the piano is very difficult to play, it is admired as some of the most poetic ever written.

Chopin was born in the village of Żelazowa Wola, 60 km from Warsaw. His father Mikołaj (Nicolas) Chopin was French. He moved to Poland in 1787 where he married Tekla Justyna Krzyzanowska. They named their son Fryderyk Franciszek. Sometimes Chopin's date of birth is given as February 22 because this is what his birth paper says, but this was written by the priest at Chopin's christening eight weeks later and was almost certainly a mistake. Chopin and his family always celebrated his birthday on March 1.

Chopin's musical ability was clear when he was very young, and newspapers in Warsaw described him as a "second Mozart". He was given private music lessons by several important musicians.

In 1829, Chopin heard the violinist Niccolò Paganini play, and met the pianist Johann Nepomuk Hummel. He also visited Vienna, where he played a couple of concerts. In December he performed his piano concerto in E minor. He first performed his other piano concerto, in F minor, in March 1830.

In 1830 he visited Vienna again, and when he heard of the troubles of the November Uprising back home he decided not to go back to Poland. He went to Paris instead, and made his home there. He started calling himself by the French version of his name, "Frédéric François". In Paris he made friends with some other important composers, including Hector Berlioz, Felix Mendelssohn, Charles-Valentin Alkan, and Vincenzo Bellini.

In 1836 Chopin was going to be married to a Polish girl called Maria Wodzinska. Her family did not like Chopin very much. Her mother made the couple keep their love secret, and finally stopped them getting married. At about this time Chopin met the woman writer Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin, the Baroness Dudevant, better known as George Sand. Eventually Chopin started a relationship with her that lasted until 1847. They visited Mallorca together in the winter of 1838-1839, where the bad weather and damp rooms made Chopin sick. He had been sick with breathing problems before, but this was so bad that they had to come home. He never got better.

In 1847 Chopin and Sand split up. In 1848 he visited England and Scotland to play in concerts, but he was very sick and had to return home. He died in Paris in 1849.

Nearly all of the pieces of music written by Chopin are for the piano as the main instrument. He wrote piano sonatas (of which the Funeral March sonata is very famous), two piano concertos, studies, ballades, nocturnes, mazurkas, polonaises, waltzes, and a set of preludes. His music was praised in his lifetime. Robert Schumann once wrote about Chopin, "Hats off, gentlemen! A genius." Nowadays every skillful pianist has probably played some Chopin, and audiences really enjoy listening to it.