The Polish Parliament unanimously passed a vote to make the year 2010 a year of Fryderyk Chopin. This year marks the 200th birthday of this extraordinary composer and pianist. 

One of the greatest musicians of the 19th century, Chopin was born on 1st March 1810 in the village of Zelazowa Wola near Warsaw. Chopin was a music composer and a maestro at playing the piano. From an early age, he was considered to be a child prodigy musician as he already had the talent of an adult skilled pianist. 

By the age of six little Chopin tried to make up new melodies and he gave public performances by seven. When he was eleven years old, Chopin performed in front of Alexander I, the Tsar of Russia. His composition included songs and chamber music too. At an early age he also showed remarkable abilities in observation and sketching, akeen wit and sense of humor, and an uncommon talent for mimicry. An anecdote describes how Chopin helped quiet rowdy children by first improvising a story and then lulling them to sleep with a berceuse (lullaby)- after which he woke everyone with an ear-piercing chord. 

At the age of 20, on 2 November 1830, he left Warsaw for Austria, intending to go on to Italy. He was one of many expatriates of the Polish Great Emigration. Chopin moved to Paris in 1831 where he lived for the rest of his short life. In Paris, he made a comfortable living as a composer and a virtuoso pianist. 

Chopin died on 17th October 1849 in Paris at the age of 33. He is considered to be one of the greatest masters of romantic music. He is remembered as one of the first nationalist composers of Poland, using the themes and dances of his native Poland as the sources for his pieces specially the polonaises and mazurkas. His name and music have lived on for last 200 years and many more years to come.