Chopin

Frédéric Chopin, born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin on 1 March 1810 in Żelazowa Wola (Duchy of Warsaw) and died on 17 October 1849 in Paris, was a composer and pianist of French-Polish descent, known for his almost exclusively piano-based work, which always includes the piano.

After his training at the Warsaw High School of Music and an early career in Poland and Vienna, he left Poland and, at the age of twenty-one, settled in France: his father, Nicolas Chopin, was from a Lorraine family. In France, he developed his inspiration amidst the effervescence of the Parisian piano world and in memory of his wounded homeland. There he met George Sand, who would be his companion for nine years.

Recognised as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic period, Frédéric Chopin is also one of the most famous pianists of the 19th century. His music is still one of the most performed today and remains an indispensable passage for understanding the universal piano repertoire. With Franz Liszt, he is the father of the modern technique of his instrument and influenced a whole line of modern composers, including Claude Debussy, Alexandre Scriabine, Maurice Ravel and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

After the collapse of Poland at the beginning of the Second World War, the instrumentalisation of Chopin's memory by the public authorities of the People's Republic of Poland contributed to the country's cultural reconstruction. Since 1927, one of the most prestigious classical piano competitions, in Warsaw, has been entirely dedicated to his work.