Sergei Rachmaninoff

Hello! My name is Sergei Rachmaninoff. I was a composer, which means I wrote music for people to play and listen to. I was born in a country called Russia on April 1st, 1873. When I was a little boy, I discovered the piano, and I fell in love with its sound. My hands were very, very big, which was perfect for stretching across the piano keys to play powerful, booming notes that filled the whole room! It felt like I was made to play the piano.

I loved music so much that when I was a teenager, I went to a special school called the Moscow Conservatory. It was a place where you could study music all day long. I practiced the piano for hours and hours every day to become the best I could be. In 1892, when I graduated, I won a special prize called the Great Gold Medal because my teachers thought my music was so wonderful. It was one of the proudest days of my life.

Besides playing the piano, my favorite thing to do was write my own music. I would imagine beautiful stories or think about big feelings like happiness or sadness, and I would turn them into songs without any words. One of my most famous pieces is my Piano Concerto No. 2, which I wrote in 1901. It has grand, sweeping sounds and quiet, gentle parts, just like a musical adventure that takes you on a journey.

When I was older, my home country of Russia went through some difficult changes. In 1917, my family and I moved to a new country, the United States, to find a safe place to live. I missed Russia very much, but I found a welcoming new home in America. I traveled all around the country and the world, playing concerts for people who loved to hear my music. It made me happy to share my gift with so many new friends.

I lived a long life filled with music and passed away in 1943. I lived to be 69 years old. Even though I am no longer here, my music lives on. All over the world, pianists still play the songs I wrote, and orchestras fill concert halls with the big, beautiful sounds that came from my heart. I hope my music makes you feel something special, too.