ABRSM
Composer Childhood Series - Chopin
The Influence of Women
Frédéric Chopin was born in Żelazowa Wola, Poland. He was baptized in Brochów. He was the second Child and the only son of Mikolaj Chopin. In October 1810, when the infant was seven months old, the family moved to Warsaw, where his father took a position as French-language teacher.
In spite of Mikołaj Chopin’s occupation, Polish spirit, culture, and language pervaded the Chopins’ home, and as a result the son would never—even in Paris—perfectly master the French language. Although none of Chopin’s family member are professional musicians, all the family had artistic leanings. Chopin’s father played the flute and violin; Chopin’s mother played piano, and gave lessons to Chopin and other boys in the elite boarding house. Under the influence of his mother, Chopin became conversant with music in its various forms.
As a child Chopin wept with emotion when his mother played the piano. By six, he was already trying to reproduce what he heard or to make up new melodies. He received his earliest piano lessons not from his mother, but from his older sister, Ludwika. His dedicated mother began to arrange Seven-year-old “Little Chopin” to give public concerts that soon prompted comparison with Mozart as a child, and with Chopin’s older contemporary, Beethoven. In those years, Chopin was sometimes invited to the Belweder Palace and charmed the irascible duke with his piano-playing.
Chopin tutored at home until he was 13, enrolled in the Warsaw Lyceum in 1823, but continued studying piano with his first official teacher his mother hired for him, Żywny. In 1825, he entranced the audience with his free improvisation in a concert, and was acclaimed the “best pianist in Warsaw” at the tender age of 15.