Frederic Franciszek Chopin, Polish composer and pianist was born in Żelazowa Wola on 22 February 1810. Several months after his birth, the whole family moved to Warsaw where his father was offered the post of French language and literature lecturer in the Warsaw Lyceum.

The musical talent of Frederic became apparent extremely early on, and it was compared with childhood genius of Mozart. Already at the age of 7, Frederic was the author of two polonaises (in G Minor and B Flat Major). Chopin’s parents arranged for the young Chopin to take piano instructions from Wojciech Żywny. Żywny taught the boy the work of classical composers (Bach, Mozart and Beethoven), but with an ear open and sympathetic to the individualism infiltrating the music of a dawning Romantic Period.

When Chopin was 16, he attended the Warsaw Conservatory of Music, directed by composer Joseph Elsner. As often happened with the young musicians of both Classical and Romantic Periods, Chopin was sent to Vienna, the unquestioned centre of music for that day. While Chopin was in Austria, Poland and Russia faced off in the apparent beginnings of war. He returned to Warsaw to get his things in preparation of a more permanent move and afterwards he went to Paris. He joined there Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz, Felix Mendelssohn, Vincenzo Bellini and Auguste Franchomme, all proponents of the new Romantic style.

Although Chopin did play in the large concert halls on occasions, he felt most at home in private settings, enjoying the social milieu that accompanied concerts for wealthy. He also enjoyed teaching as this caused him less stress than performing. News of the war in Poland inspired him to write many sad musical pieces, among them “Revolutionary Etude”. As the war continued in Warsaw and then reached to Paris, Chopin retired to Scotland with friends. He played there lots of concerts and visited various localities, including the castles of the Scottish aristocracy. This exceptionally hectic life style and excessive strain on his strength from constant travelling and numerous performances, together with a climate deleterious to his lungs, further damaged his health. On 16 November 1848, despite frailty and a fever, Chopin gave his last concert, playing for Polish émigrés in the Guildhall in London. A few days later he returned to Paris. On 17 October 1849, Chopin died of pulmonary tuberculosis in his Parisian flat in the Place Vendome. He was buried in the Pere - Lachaise cemetery in Paris. In accordance with his will, his heart, taken from his body after death, was brought by his sister to Warsaw where it was placed in an urn installed in a pillar of the Holy Cross Church in Krakowskie Przedmieście.