Today is Frédéric Chopin’s 196th birthday. Chopin is one of the most famous, influential and admired composers for the piano, and Poland’s most significant composer.

Chopin, although born in Warsaw, traveled extensively and spent many of his years in Paris. In 1848 Chopin gave his last concert in Paris and in 1849 he at his home in the place Vendôme.

He had requested that Mozart’s Requiem be sung at his funeral, which was held at the Church of the Madeleine and was attended by nearly three thousand people. The Requiem has major parts for female singers but the Madeleine had never permitted female singers in its choir. The funeral was delayed for almost 2 weeks, until the church finally relented and granted Chopin’s final wish provided the female singers remained behind a black velvet curtain.

Although Chopin is buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, at his own request his heart was removed and dispatched in an urn to Warsaw, where it is sealed in a pillar in the Church of the Holy Cross.

Chopin’s funeral site, the Church of the Madeleine in Paris, is a concert venue available to musical groups traveling with Music Celebrations International as part of the American Celebration of Music in France. Please contact MCI to learn more about traveling to either France or Poland.