Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Hello there. My name is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and I want to tell you the story of my life, which was filled to the brim with music. I was born a long, long time ago, in the year 1756, in a beautiful Austrian town called Salzburg. Our home was always ringing with beautiful sounds because my father, Leopold, was a wonderful composer and music teacher. He played the violin, and the sweet notes would float through every room. My older sister, Nannerl, was also very talented. She could play the harpsichord, an instrument that looks a bit like a piano, so beautifully that it sounded like magic. I was surrounded by music from the moment I was born. I didn’t just like music; I felt it in my heart. When Nannerl would practice her lessons, I would sit beside her, completely captivated. Soon, I wanted to play, too. My fingers were tiny, but they found their way around the keys of the harpsichord. My father was amazed when he saw that I could not only play the songs he taught my sister but could also create my own little tunes. By the time I was five years old, I was composing my own music, dreaming up melodies in my head even before I knew how to write down all my letters and words. Music was my first language, the way I could share all the feelings I had inside.

My father saw that my sister and I had a special gift, and he wanted to share our music with the world. When I was just six years old, in 1762, our entire family—my father, my mother Anna Maria, Nannerl, and I—packed our bags and climbed into a carriage. This was the beginning of a great adventure. We traveled all across Europe, which was not easy back then. The roads were bumpy and the journeys were long and tiring, but it was also incredibly exciting. I got to see enormous cities like Paris, France, and London, England. The most amazing part was that we were invited to perform in the palaces of kings and queens. Imagine a little boy like me, standing in a grand hall with glittering chandeliers, playing the harpsichord for royalty. I would sometimes play with a cloth covering the keys to show I knew them by heart, and the audiences would gasp with surprise. These travels were not just for show; they were my school. In every new city, I heard new kinds of music. In Italy, the operas were so dramatic and full of passion. In Germany, the orchestras were powerful and grand. All these new sounds swirled around in my mind like ingredients for a new recipe, giving me wonderful ideas for the symphonies, sonatas, and concertos I would write.

After years of traveling, I knew I needed to find a place to build my own life as a composer. When I was 25, in 1781, I made the big decision to move to Vienna. At the time, Vienna was the musical capital of the world, and I knew it was where I needed to be to truly make my mark. It was there that I met the love of my life, a wonderful singer named Constanze, and we were married. Being with her filled my heart with so much happiness, and it led to a huge burst of creativity. Ideas for new music came to me constantly. I worked day and night, writing down the melodies that filled my head. This was when I wrote some of my most famous operas, like 'The Marriage of Figaro,' which is a funny story about love and mischief, and 'The Magic Flute,' a fairytale filled with adventure and enchanting songs. My life was not very long; I passed away in 1791 when I was only 35 years old. But I wasn't sad, because I knew I had filled my short time with as much music as possible. Looking back, I see that my purpose was to share the joy I felt inside through my compositions. And I am so happy that, even centuries later, my music has lived on, still making people smile, dance, and feel all the wonderful emotions that music can bring.