Felix Mendelssohn at the age of thirty

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (born Hamburg 3 February 1809; died Leipzig 4 November 1847) was a German composer.

His grandfather was the German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. He was one of the great composers of the Romantic period. He loved the music of earlier composers like Bach, Handel and Mozart and he built on the traditions they had made. Mendelssohn was a child prodigy. He was already composing great music when he was a teenager. He wrote music for orchestra, piano, organ as well as chamber music and music for singing. His violin concerto is one of the most popular concertos ever written and is played by all the famous violinists. Two of his tunes are known by almost everybody: the hymn tune Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and the Wedding March which is played so often at the end of weddings.