Famous Composers

The Czech Butcher's Son Who Turned Folk Melodies into Masterpieces and Gave America Its Musical Voice (1841–1904)

The Red-Haired Venetian Priest Who Taught Orphaned Virtuosos and Reshaped the Concerto (1678–1741)

How the Creator of Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune Broke Tonality's Rules and Opened the Twentieth Century (1862–1918)

How the Soviet Union's Most Conflicted Composer Wrote Masterpieces While Navigating Terror (1906–1975)

Prodigy, Pioneer Conductor, and Romantic Master of a Short but Brilliant Life (1809–1847)

How a 19th-Century Virtuoso Invented Modern Celebrity, Transformed the Piano, and Died in a Monk's Robe (1811–1886)

Six Hundred Songs, a Life of Thirty-One Years, and the Bridge Between Classical and Romantic Eras (1797–1828)

The Short, Brilliant Life of the Polish-French Composer Who Gave the Instrument a Voice (1810–1849)

From Halle to London — the German-Born, Italian-Trained Genius Who Reinvented Himself Twice (1685–1759)

From a Village Tavern in Le Roncole to the World Stages of Aida and Otello (1813–1901)

The Outsider Who Ruled the World's Great Opera Houses and Reshaped the Symphony (1860–1911)

Six Decades of Reinventing Modern Music, from The Rite of Spring Onward (1882–1971)

The Working Church Musician Whose Cantatas, Notebooks, and Fugues Became a Foundation (1685–1750)

From Hamburg Dockside Taverns to the Concert Halls of Vienna — a Great Romantic Composer (1833–1897)

How Near-Isolation at a Hungarian Palace Shaped Classical Music's Defining Forms (1732–1809)

The Composer Who Broke the Classical Mold and Kept Writing After Losing His Hearing (1770–1827)

The Symphonies, Ballets, and Conflicted Inner Life of a Master, from Votkinsk to Saint Petersburg (1840–1893)

The Operas, Bayreuth, and the Troubling Legacy Historians Still Wrestle With (1813–1883)

Piano Poetry, a Legendary Music Magazine, and the Mental Illness That Ended His Life at 46 (1810–1856)

Child Prodigy Who Became Vienna's Freelance Star, Dead at Thirty-Five — A TLDR Biography (1756–1791)