ClassicalWolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s life
The big moments of this life, and what was happening in the world at the same time.
A life at a glance
- 1756👶 Birth
Born in Salzburg on 27 January
- 1761🎼 Workage 5
Composes his first pieces at 5
- 1762🧳 Journeyage 6
Plays for Empress Maria Theresa in Vienna
- 1764🎼 Workage 8
First symphony, in London, aged 8
- 1769🌍 Meanwhile
James Watt’s improved steam engine
- 1773🎩 Careerage 17
Musician to Archbishop Colloredo in Salzburg
- 1776🌍 Meanwhile
United States Declaration of Independence
- 1778❤️ Private lifeage 22
His mother dies in Paris during a journey
- 1783🌍 Meanwhile
First manned flight in a hot-air balloon
- 1786🎼 Workage 30
The Marriage of Figaro
- 1789🏛️ Landmarkage 33
French Revolution
- 1789🌍 Meanwhile
Storming of the Bastille: the French Revolution
- 1791🕯️ Deathage 35
Dies in Vienna on 5 December, aged 35
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Excerpts of up to 90 seconds, freely licensed recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
Once upon a time…
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria. At three he was already playing the keyboard, and at five he composed his first pieces! His dad took him and his big sister Nannerl to give concerts all over Europe.
Little Mozart amazed everyone: he played blindfolded, made up music on the spot and met kings and queens. At fourteen he memorised a long secret chant from the Vatican after hearing it only once!
As a grown-up he settled in Vienna. He wrote operas full of humour and magic, like The Magic Flute, with the terrifying Queen of the Night and the bird-catcher Papageno.
He died very young, at thirty-five, but he had composed more than six hundred works.
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