Biography

Handel was a musical composer and musician. He is considered one of the greatest composers of the baroque period.  Handel studied music at a young age under the organist Zachau. In 1702 he attended school at the Friedrichs-Universitat, where he trained to become a lawyer, and where he was appointed organist. In 1703 he moved to Hamburg where he began composing works and worked as second violinist in the orchestra at the opera house. At 20 years of age he wrote his first opera, "Almira." Through the early eighteenth-century he travelled to London, Florence, and Hanover, composing works. In 1712 he permanently settled in London. In 1711 the opera he was commissioned to write for the Queen's theatre "Rinaldo", opened. Soon after George I hired Handel as music master for the royal family. In England he developed the English oratio. By 1753 he was experiencing declining vision and bouts of anxiety and depression. On April 6, 1759 he died.