Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus
Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. Mozart showed
prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and
violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At
17, he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled
in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. While visiting Vienna
in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital,
where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna,
he composed many of his best-
He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and his influence on subsequent Western art music is profound; Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote that "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years."