Antonin Dvorak – Also an amateur musician, his father encouraged his son’s pursuit of a musical career, getting him violin lessons and eventually sending him to the prestigious Prague Organ School.
Antonio Carlos Gomes – With their support, Antônio was accepted to study at the Conservatory of Music in Rio de Janeiro; he graduated with honors… and soon after composed his first opera.
Antonio Vivaldi – At the age of 25 he was named the music master at the ‘Ospedale della Pietá’ (an orphanage, the “Devout Hospital of Mercy”), instructing the boys in all sorts of instruments.
Clara Schumann – It was under his watchful eye that she began performing publically at the age of eight. In 1840, much to her father’s displeasure, she married Robert Schumann, one of his students.
Franz Liszt – But in 1833, having recovered from his depression and composing again, Franz Liszt debuted his first new work, and soon enough others.
Frederic Chopin – Over the next three years, he meandered across Austria, Poland, Germany, and France, eventually settling in Paris.
Gauhar Jaan – Needless-to-say, she lived well – even extravagantly – once spending 20 thousand rupees on a party for her cat. A true diva (Gauhar, not the cat).
Johann Sebastian Bach – A skilled and admired performer, J.S. took on a number of positions in churches and courts over the next several years.
Juventino Rosas – In the late 1880s unconfirmed reports had Rosas a member of a military band, and in 1891 he was supposedly playing in the region of Michoacán as an itinerant violinist.
Lili’uokalani – Among all of this, she was also an accomplished musician and composer of native songs and chants.
Liu Tianhua – As an academic, he wrote progressive studies for the erhu and the pipa, the first time such studies had appeared in the scholarly literature.
Ludwig van Beethoven – Beethoven returned to Vienna. There he studied piano with Haydn, voice with Salieri, and counterpoint with Albrechtsberger.
Mykola Leontovych – most influential Ukrainian composer, choral master, music teacher, and icon of the Ukrainian nationalist movement.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Mozart proved the better understudy, and within two years had learned not only the piano, but violin and clarinet as well.
Yatsuhashi Kengyo – It is certainly the most played classical pieces for the instrument, and its melody has been arranged for a number of other stringed instruments common in other civilizations.
