Frédéric Chopin

Born in March 1810 in Żelazowa Wola (Poland), the composer, pianist and teacher was christened Fridericus Franciscus, which is why the form "Fryderyk Franciszek" is used in Polish. His father was from Lorraine, hence the French surname. From 1826 to 1829, he studied in Joseph Elsner’s class at the Warsaw Central Music School. The premiere of his Piano Concerto in F minor, Op. 21, took place in Warsaw in March 1830, followed by the Concerto in E minor, Op. 11, in October of the same year. In September 1831, Chopin moved to Paris, where he changed his first name to ‘Frédéric’. Chopin very quickly became a sought-after piano teacher, whose pupils were largely members of the European aristocracy. In October 1836, at a soirée hosted by Franz Liszt and Marie d’Agoult, he met the writer George Sand, with whom he began a romantic relationship in 1838 that lasted until 1847. Following the February Revolution of 1848, Chopin travelled to the British Isles in April 1848 through the mediation of his pupil Jane Stirling, where he gave concerts in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh and also taught. In November 1848, he returned to Paris, where his health deteriorated drastically. He died on 17 October 1849 in Paris. Chopin’s body was buried in the Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, whilst his heart was transferred to Warsaw, where it found its final resting place in the Church of the Holy Cross.
Among Chopin’s oeuvre of some 230 works, the alongside the two piano concertos with orchestra, the three sonatas, the 27 études and the 24 Préludes, Op. 28 are of particular importance.
Ballets set to Chopin’s music have been created by, among others, Mikhail Fokin (Les Sylphides, 1909), Jerome Robbins (The Concert, 1956 / Dances at a Gathering, 1969 / In The Night, 1970 / Other Dances 1976), Frederick Ashton (A Month in the Country, 1976), Maurice Béjart (Variations Don Giovanni, 1979), Marie Chouinard (Les 24 préludes de Chopin, 1989) and Liam Scarlett (Concerto in E Minor, 2018).