Top 10 com­posers facts

Piano. Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos. Since the 19th-century Bach he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time, but he did not compose a single piece of music for the piano

Jacopo Peri (1561-1633), known under the pseudonym Il Zazzerino, was an Italian composer and singer of the transitional period between the Renaissance and Baroque styles, and is often called the inventor of opera. He wrote the first work to be called an opera today, Dafne (around 1597), and also the first opera to have survived to the present day, Euridice (1600).

Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Swan Lake is a ballet composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failure, it is now one of the most popular of all ballets. The scenario, initially in two acts, was fashioned from Russian and German folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse.

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, music teacher, arranger and organist of the Romantic era. Liszt gained renown in Europe during the early nineteenth century for his prodigious virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was a friend, musical promoter and benefactor to many composers of his time, including Frédéric Chopin, Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz and Robert Schumann,

Every 5 years. The International Chopin Piano Competition often referred to as the Chopin Competition, is a piano competition held in Warsaw, Poland. It was initiated in 1927 and has been held every five years since 1955. It is one of the few competitions devoted entirely to the works of a single composer, in this case, Frédéric Chopin.

Richard Wagner. The Ring of the Nibelung, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied. Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874.

In Salzburg. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the classical era. Born in Salzburg, 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.

German. Beethoven was born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of the Holy Roman Empire. He moved to Vienna in his early 20s. His grandfather was of Flemish origin, thus "van" in his family name (not German "von").

Composer. Louis-Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer. His output includes orchestral works such as the Symphonie fantastique and Harold in Italy. Opinion was divided for many years between those who thought him an original genius and those who viewed his music as lacking in form and coherence.

Hans Zimmer is a German film score composer and record producer. Since the 1980s, he has composed music for over 150 films, including The Lion King, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1995.