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Written & narrated by Jeremy Siepmann - Music by Chopin - Unabridged Original Audio Nonfiction - 4 CASSETTES - 5 hours

Publisher, Naxos Audiobooks (May 2001)

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2002 Audie Award Winner for 'Best Original Work' Audiobook, presented by the Audio Publishers Association for excellence in audio publishing.

The second in our new series of musical biographies, written and presented by broadcaster Jeremy Siepmann, with Anton Lesser as Chopin. In this set the life and music of the revolutionary composer/pianist is unveiled in considerable detail with many musical examples.

Frederic Chopin is the pianist-composer par excellence. Regarded one of the most mesmeric performers of his day, he lives on in his music—his waltzes, mazurkas, etudes, preludes, nocturnes, three piano sonatas, two piano concertos and much more. llere, his life —from his birth in Poland, his famous affair with the French writer George Sand, and his death at the age of 49 in Paris—is told with his music featuring prominently.

About Jeremy Siepmann: Jeremy Siepmann was horn in the United States and educated at the Mannes College of Music in New York. After completing his studies, he moved to London in 1964. After several years as a freelance lecturer, he joined the staff of London University and has spent most of the last 20 years teaching piano to pupils of worldwide repute.

As a writer, he has contributed articles, reviews and interviews to numerous journals and reference works, some of which have been reprinted in book form (Oxford University Press, Robson Books). His books include a widely acclaimed biography of Chopin (The Reluctant Romantic, Gollancz/Northeastern University Press, 1995), two volumes on the history and literature of the piano, and a biography of Brahms (Everyman/EMI, 1997). In December 1997 he was appointed editor of Piano magazine.

His career as a broadcaster began in New York in 1963 with an East Coast radio series on the life and work of Mozart. After a long break, he returned to broadcasting in 1977, and has devised, written and presented more than 1,000 programs for the BBC, including the international-award-winning series The Elements of Music. In 1988 he was appointed Head of Music at the BBC World Service, broadcasting to an estimated audience of 135 million. He left the Corporation in 1994 to form his own independent production company.