Frédéric Chopin (Polish: Fryderyk [Franciszek] Chopin, sometimes Szopen; French: Frédéric [François] Chopin; 1 March 1810 - 17 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He was one of the great masters of Romantic music.
Chopin was born in the village of Zelazowa Wola, in the Duchy of Warsaw, to a French-expatriate father and Polish mother, and in his early life was regarded as a child-prodigy pianist. In November 1830, at the age of twenty, he went abroad; following the suppression of the Polish November Uprising of 1830?1831, he became one of many expatriates of the Polish "Great Emigration."
In Paris, Chopin made a comfortable living as a composer and piano teacher, while giving few public performances. Though an ardent Polish patriot, in France he used the French versions of his names and eventually, to avoid having to rely on Imperial Russian documents, became a French citizen. After some ill-fated romantic involvements with Polish women, from 1837 to 1847 he had a turbulent relationship with the French writer George Sand (Aurore Dudevant). Always in frail health, he died in Paris in 1849, at the age of thirty-nine, of chronic pulmonary tuberculosis.
Chopin's extant compositions were written primarily for the piano as a solo instrument. Though they are technically demanding, his style emphasises nuance and expressive depth. Chopin invented musical forms such as the ballade and was responsible for major innovations in forms such as the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, étude, impromptu and prélude. His works are masterpieces and mainstays of Romanticism in 19th-century classical music. (Collapse)...(Read more)
Ioan Dobrinescu Ioan Dobrinescu was born in 1960 and studied the violin at the George Enescu Music High school and then composition at the University of Music in Bucharest, which he graduated in 1986 as head of his class. Among the masters that have marked his artistic path are the late composers and professors Aurel Stroe, Tiberiu Olah, Stefan Niculescu, Alexandru Pascanu, Dan Constantinescu, Anatol Vieru and Constantin Bugeanu.
After a short career in teaching, Ioan Dobrinescu becomes an editor for Actualitatea Muzicala, the magazine of the Romanian Composers and Musicologist Union. From 1991 onward he became editor and later artistic counselor for the Romanian Broadcasting Corporation. He is currently the head of the Evaluation Committee for Musical Recordings.
In tandem with his numerous programs and music shows of all genres, Ioan Dobrinescu has also written as a music critic, presented numerous concerts and written concert programmes.
Even during his studies, Ioan Dobrinescu was bestowed numerous awards for his creations such as the Mihail Jora prize of the Romanian Music Critics Union in 1995 and the Competition for Musical Programmes organized by Radio Brno in the Czech Republic in 1996.
He became a member of UCMR in 1990 and his original works and arrangements have been played in Romania, France, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Belgium, The Netherlands and the Republic of Moldova.