Mozart started his career as a composer at the age of four, when he began composing piano pieces. At the age of five he was composing minuets and by age nine he had composed his first symphony. He wrote 20 complete operas, his final and most spectacular being The Magic Flute, which he wrote in the last year of his life at age 35. Mozart was a combination of the revolutionary compositional brilliance of modern day composers such as John Lennon and Paul McCartney with the groundbreaking performance individuality of an Elvis Presley—all rolled into one. He was the ultimate iconic pop-star of the 18th century who traveled across Europe on tour, each one more outstanding than the next. Fortunately for a modern audience his genius has never faded. In celebration of his 250th birthday I wanted to capture some of his most joyous work on film, and decided that a contemporary movie version of The Magic Flute might be workable if told as the backdrop to a modern love story, conveyed on a fantastical scale.

Here are just 10 simple pieces of information about the life of Mozart that you may not know. Find out more about his family life, his reputation throughout Europe and his musical rivalries here!

Eight p.m. tonight will officially mark the 255th year since Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was first brought into the world, changing the face of music forever.  The events surrounding his birth were recounted by John Irving in The Treasures of Mozart.  They are as follows:

It wasn’t just musicians and royalty that basked in Mozart’s creative genius.  Philosophers did as well.  Daines Barrington, an English philosopher, got to directly observe the way music could spontaneously slip through Mozart’s fingers and unfold in on-the-spot masterpieces. 

 Out of the extensive research that was done during the making of Kevin Sullivan's feature film Mozart's Magic Flute Diaries, a side-project was born - the documentary, Mozart Decoded. 

There are a select number of artists and intellects in history that can actually be called child prodigies.  They reached unbelievable potential in their earliest years and not only maintained their genius, but allowed it to grow as they grew.  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of those child prodigies.  But what effect did this have on all those who knew - and raised - him?