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Chopin
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Chopin Biography
Frédéric François (1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849), born (and known in Poland as) Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era. Chopin was born at Żelazowa Wola, a village in the Duchy of Warsaw, then under Russian rule, to a French father and a Polish mother. A child prodigy, he grew up in Warsaw and completed his musical education there, composing many of his works before leaving Poland at the age of 20, shortly before the November 1830 Uprising.
Settling in Paris, during the remaining 19 years of his life Chopin gave only some 30 public performances, preferring the more intimate atmosphere of the salon; he supported himself by selling his compositions and as a sought-after piano teacher. He formed a friendship with Franz Liszt and was admired by many of his musical contemporaries, including Robert Schumann. After a failed engagement with a Polish girl, from 1837 to 1847 he maintained a, often troubled relationship with the French writer George Sand. A brief and unhappy visit with Sand to Majorca in 1838–39 was also one of his most productive periods of composition. In his last years he was financially supported by his admirer Jane Stirling, who also arranged for him to visit Scotland in 1848. For most of his life Chopin suffered from poor health. He died in Paris in 1849, probably from tuberculosis.
