Felix Jakob Ludwig Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and organist. He infused a basic classical approach to musical composition with fresh romantic harmonies and expressiveness.

Felix Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg on Feb. 3, 1809, the son of Abraham and Leah Mendelssohn and the grandson of the famous Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. In later years Felix's father humorously referred to himself as "formerly the son of my father and now the father of my son." In 1812 the family moved to Berlin, where Abraham established himself as a banker, converted to Protestantism, and changed the family name to Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.

Felix and his elder sister, Fanny, received their initial piano instruction from their mother. In 1816, on a visit to Paris, he studied with the pianist Marie Bigot. The next year he began formal composition studies with Carl Friedrich Zelter, a composer greatly admired by the poet Johann Wolfgang von...