Composer. Born Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Gottlieb Mozart in Salzburg, Austria, the son of Anna Maria Pertl and Leopold Mozart, a violinist and assistant concertmaster in the service of the archbishop of Salzburg. An acknowledged prodigy, at three he began harpsichord lessons and at four he played and composed minuets. At five, he performed in public for the first time, and the following year he and his older sister performed a series of concerts throughout Europe. In 1768 he composed his first opera, 'La Finta Semplice', which then premiered in Salzburg. In April 1764 the Mozart family traveled to England where they remained for over a year, playing before the royal family where he composed sonatas he dedicated to the queen. In 1767 in Vienna, he composed an opera, 'La Finta semplice,' upon which the archbishop of Salzburg based his appointment of the composer as his maestro di capella, an honorary office. He continued to travel throughout Europe, composing such pieces as the 'Mitridate, Re di Ponto' in 1770, 'Paris Symphony' in 1778 and 'Idomeneo' in 1781. He resigned from the service of the parsimonious and unappreciative archbishop and on August 4, 1782 he married Constanze Weber with whom he fell into heavy debt from which he never emerged. Relocating to Vienna where he was popular with the court, he was commissioned to write 'The Abduction from the Seraglio'. He wrote 'The Marriage of Figaro' in 1786 for the Vienna Opera which saw an enthusiastic reception. The following year he received a commission to write an opera for the next season of the Prague opera entitled 'Don Giovanni'. Emperor Joseph II engaged him as court composer for relatively paltry sum which did nothing to ease his debts. His first commission was an Italian opera, 'Così fan tutte' which debuted in 1790. This was followed by a commission from a theatre owner in Wieden near Vienna, and in 1791 'The Magic Flute' debuted with brilliant success. Simultaneously, he was commissioned to compose a 'Requiem' by one party and an opera, 'La Clemenza di Tito', for the coronation of the emperor Leopold II at Prague. Overworked, his precarious health broke, and he reportedly began to believe that the 'Requiem' had been commissioned by an otherworldly agent in preparation for the composer's own death, although current scholarship has determined it was Count Walsegg who desired a requiem for his own funeral. Mozart worked upon his final composition obsessively, but succumbed to a fever at age 35 in December 1791 before its completion. His student, probably Süssmayer, completed the score. After a rather cheap funeral at Saint Stephen's Cathedral, he was buried in an unmarked common grave at the cemetery of Saint Marx in a Viennese suburb; memorial services and concerts in Vienna and Prague, however, were well attended and his reputation rose sharply. He composed over 600 works including some 21 stage and opera works, 15 Masses, more than 50 symphonies, and 25 piano concertos; his work survives.