Born: June 18, 1757, Ruppersthal, Austria. Died: November 14, 1831, Paris, France. Buried: Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France. |
Twenty-fourth child of a village schoolmaster, Pleyel became Kapellmeister to Count Ladislaus Erdödy around 1776. He traveled in Italy in the early 1780’s, and wrote the opera Ifigenia in Aulide, which opened in Naples in 1785. Four years later, he became Kapellmeister in the cathedral in Strassburg. In the early 1790’s, he was conducting concert series in London. By 1795, he had moved to France, where he founded Maison Pleyel, a music publishing firm. In 1807, he opened a piano company. He wrote about 45 symphonies in his lifetime, and numerous other works.
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Music