Origins & Early Life

Johann Georg Leopold Mozart (14 November 1719 – 28 May 1787) was a German composer, violinist, and music theorist. He is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule (1756). Mozart was born in Augsburg on 14 November 1719, son of Johann Georg Mozart, a bookbinder, and his second wife Anna Maria Sulzer. From an early age, Mozart sang as a choirboy.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

He attended a local Jesuit school, St. Salvator, where he studied logic, science, and theology, graduating magna cum laude in 1735. Mozart studied then at the St. Salvator Lyzeum. While a student in Augsburg, Mozart appeared in student theater productions as an actor and singer, and became a skilled violinist and organist.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

He also developed an interest, which he retained, in microscopes and telescopes. Although his parents had planned a career for Leopold as a Catholic priest, this apparently was not Leopold's own wish. An old school friend told Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1777, "Ah he [Leopold] was a great fellow. My father thought the world of him. And how he hoodwinked the clerics about becoming a...

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