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Born
January 27, 1756, in Salzburg. His father, Leopold Mozart,
a noted composer and pedagogue and the author of a famous
treatise on violin playing, was then in the service of the
archbishop of Salzburg. Together with his sister, Nannerl,
Wolfgang received such intensive musical training that by
the age of six, he was a budding composer and an accomplished
keyboard performer. In 1762, Leopold presented his son as
a performer at the imperial court in Vienna, and from 1763
to 1766, he escorted both children on a continuous musical
tour across Europe. The tour included long stays in Paris
and London as well as visits to many other cities, with
appearances before the French and English royal families.
Mozart
was the most celebrated child prodigy of this time as a
keyboard performer and made a great impression, too, as
composer and improviser. In London, he won the admiration
of so eminent a musician as Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782),
and he was exposed from an early age to an unusual variety
of musical styles and tastes across the Continent.
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