Classical Musician. Considered by many as one of the greatest pianists in modern history, he was born in 1887 in the city of Lodz, Poland, and began his piano practicing at the age of three. Displaying talent at the age of ten, his mother took him to Berlin, Germany to study music (he would never return home to live with his family). At age eleven he performed for the first time at the Beethoven Saal Festival with the Berliner Philharmonic, and would continue at that point to perform around the world until he was 89. His first attempt to perform to an American audience failed. In 1906 he made a tour in the United States, only to find that he had to perform better and with greater skill to be successful. Returning to Europe he started friendships with prominent people in the arts, including figures such as author and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, painter Pablo Picasso and composer Igor Stravinsky. Greatly indulging in a social lifestyle, he would still practice intensely, sometimes 16 hours a day. He subsequently would tour and perform in Spain, South America and Russia. Returning to tour the United States in 1937, he found the great success that he failed to achieve on his first trip to the country. He had also established a trademark on playing with charisma. After leaving Paris, France to escape the Nazis in 1939, he settled in Los Angeles, California and became a United States citizen in 1946. Despite this though, he would spend much of the post-World War II years in his native Europe, and in May 1976, he made his last performance in London, England. He was renowned for having had a vast repertoire, spanning from works by Wolfgang Mozart and Robert Schumann to Manuel de Falla and Claude Debussy, and was greatly praised for his interpretation of Frédèric Chopin´s piano works. Arthur Rubinstein died peacefully in his sleep on December 20, 1982 in his home in Geneva, Switzerland, and his ashes were buried in Jerusalem, Israel in a plot called "Rubinstein Forest" which overlooks Jerusalem Forest.