Born in Salzburg in 1756, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of the most prolific musicians that ever lived. Here, the author Judith Grohmann takes us behind the curtain of the career to reveal the real personality of the composer, whose influence on the world of music is still profound today. A child prodigy, he played several instruments from a tender age and eventually created his own style by blending the traditional with the contemporary. He was beloved and hyped, but was also a multi-layered and controversial personality: on one side a provocative influencer, hyperactive and a driven man, a bon vivant who loved luxury, but on the other side, a man who was drawn to the Masonic mindset of brotherhood, freedom, tolerance and humanity, with frequent and extreme mood changes and a penchant for word games and a peculiar sense of humour. In his short life, Mozart anticipated almost everything that makes a star today: international tours, hysterical fans, success, big hits, sex and addiction. He wrote obsessively and composed more than 600 different operas, sonatas, masses, concerts and symphonies. As far as we know today, Mozart's oeuvre contains around 1,060 titles. Knighted by the Pope aged just 14 (the greatest award for any artist at the time), today he might have been showered with Grammys and platinum discs in recognition of his status as the original 'King of Pop'. AUTHOR: Judith Grohmann was born in Vienna and grew up speaking three different languages. An alumni of the Lycée Français de Vienne, she graduated from the University of Vienna with a Master ´s degree in Political Science, Journalism and Japanese. After being appointed Head of Production at the Austrian political magazine Profil, she has gone on to work for a multitude of publications across Europe, including Le Monde diplomatique, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, the Swiss Manager magazine Bilan, as well as architectural, industrial and political magazines. She became an author in 2005 and her previous books include Fighting the War on Terror (P&S, 2018), and the official biography of the former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. She lives in Vienna, but is often seen between Paris, London and the south of France. 30 b/w illustrations
