He began composing at five.  By the time he was 12 he had written his first opera.  He was a brilliant composer who could write music in almost any style.  He composed very quickly and wrote huge amounts of music.  He wrote 41 symphonies and many wonderful operas.  He was known as a musical genius throughout his life, but after he stopped being a cute kid, people stopped making a big fuss over him.  In his time musicians were treated like servants, but he did not, and could not think of himself as a servant.  Although he was well-known during his life, he spent money faster than he could earn it, so he never got rich from all the money he earned making music.

          One night a mysterious stranger came to his door dressed in gray to offer him money to write a requiem mass (a kind of music that choirs perform at funerals). He was very afraid of ghosts and extremely superstitious, so he was terrified of the stranger who kept nagging him to finish the Requiem.  He was already ill and he became convinced that he was writing music for his own funeral!  Before he could finish the Requiem, he died, poor and in debt, at the young age of 35.  Sadly he was buried in an unmarked poor man's grave.  This composer is still considered to be the greatest composer who ever lived.

 Here are two GREAT web sites where you can learn more!  The first one is told by someone who lives in Colorado, and it's much easier to read than most other web sites.  Plus, you can listen to samples of his work!!  The second one is terrific too!

http://www.stringsinthemountains.org/m2m/1once.htm

http://www.karadar.com/Dictionary/mozart.html