Mozart facts for kids: 20 things to know

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a composer who lived from 1756 to 1791. Here are 20 facts about him for a school project, a poster, or a composer study. Each one is short enough to copy onto a card.

His family

1. He was born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, a city that is now in Austria.

2. He was baptized with four names: Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus. “Amadeus” is a Latin form of Theophilus. Both mean “loved by God.”

3. His father, Leopold, was a violinist and composer. Leopold wrote a well-known book on how to play the violin. It came out in the year Wolfgang was born.

4. His older sister, Maria Anna, was called Nannerl. She was a gifted keyboard player, and the two toured together as children. Read musical families.

His childhood

5. He picked out chords on the harpsichord at three. He wrote his first pieces at five.

6. He never went to school. His father taught him music, reading, math, and languages.

7. At six, he played for the empress in Vienna.

8. From the age of seven, he toured Europe with his family for three and a half years. They visited Munich, Paris, London, and many other cities.

9. He wrote his first symphony at eight, in London.

10. He wrote his first work for the stage at 11.

11. At 14, in Rome, he heard a piece of choir music that the church kept to itself. He went home and wrote it down from memory.

His grown-up life

12. By one count, he spent about ten of his 35 years traveling.

13. At 25, he moved to Vienna. He made his living from teaching, concerts, and new pieces that people paid him to write.

14. He married Constanze Weber in 1782. They had six children. Two lived to grow up.

15. He loved jokes, riddles, word games, and billiards.

16. He kept a starling for three years. The bird could whistle a tune from one of his piano concertos.

17. He and Haydn were friends and played string quartets together. Haydn told Mozart’s father that Wolfgang was the greatest composer he knew.

His music

18. He wrote more than 600 pieces. Among them are about 50 symphonies, 27 piano concertos, and about 20 operas.

19. The letter K and a number follow each of his titles. The K stands for Ludwig von Köchel, who made a list of all Mozart’s works in 1862.

20. He died in Vienna on December 5, 1791, at 35. He left his Requiem unfinished.

Four things people get wrong

“He wrote Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” He did not. He wrote 12 variations on the tune. Read who wrote Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star?

“Salieri poisoned him.” He did not. Mozart died of an illness. Read how did Mozart die?

“He was buried in a poor man’s grave because he had no money.” A plain, unmarked grave was the usual custom in Vienna at the time.

“Playing Mozart to a baby makes the baby smarter.” Studies do not support this. Read does classical music make kids smarter?

Things to do together

Make a poster. Pick five facts. Write each one in a box and draw a picture for it.

Map the tour. Find Salzburg, Munich, Paris, London, and Vienna on a map of Europe. Trace the route with a finger.

Whistle like a starling. Play the last movement of Piano Concerto No. 17. Try to whistle the first tune.

Count the K. Find three Mozart pieces and read their K numbers. A low number means an early piece.

Print and play

Print the Mozart fact sheet. Read Mozart for kids for his life story and the pieces to play first. For other children who wrote music, see child prodigy composers. Test what you know with the composer quiz.

For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.