Active Years: 1809-1847
Position: German composer.
Career Highlights: Midsummer Night’s Dream, Octet, and Reformation Symphony.
Career Totals: 4 symphonies, several overtures, many chamber works, dozens of works for piano and organ, and several works for chorus and orchestra.
Scouting Report: A real child prodigy, Felix Mendelssohn grew up in a wealthy and distinguished Jewish family. His father, however, was [...]

Active Years: 1862-1918
Position: French composer
Career Highlights: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, La Mer
Career Totals: 6 ballets and operas, 9 orchestral works, a variety of chamber music, dozens of pieces for solo piano, scores of songs, and other choral works.
Scouting Report: Along with Ravel, Debussy was the quintessential French composer. His music has often [...]

Active Years: 1810-1849
Position: Polish pianist and composer
Career Highlights: Piano Concerto No. 2
Career Totals: Many preludes, waltzes, mazurkas, polonaises, nocturnes, etudes, every dance but the “macarena” for piano.
Scouting Report: An extremely talented pianist, Chopin wrote pieces almost exclusively for himself to play. He was not well known for his interpretations of the works of others, much [...]

Active Years: 1833-1897
Position: German composer.
Career Highlights: German Requiem, 4th Symphony, and the 2nd Piano Concerto.
Career Totals: 4 symphonies, 2 serenades, many works for solo piano, 3 quartets, 3 trios, several sonatas, 230 songs, other choral works.
Scouting Report: A real student of the game, Brahms was haunted by his determination to continue the line of great [...]

Active Years: 1770-1827
Position: Great German composer
Career Highlights: Fifth Symphony, Ninth Symphony, “Emperor” Concerto.
Career Totals: 9 Symphonies, 9 overtures, 16 quartets, various concertos, 10 sonatas for violin, dozens for piano, 1 opera, 2 masses, various songs and incidental music.
Scouting Report: Not a child prodigy, but a tireless worker, a man of quick temper, did not suffer [...]

Active Years: 1881-1945
Position: Hungarian composer and musicologist.
Career Highlights: Mikrosmos, concerto for orchestra, String quartets.
Career Totals: 1 opera, 2 ballets, many choral works based on folk songs, 10 concertos, 6 string quartets, dozens of solo piano works.
Scouting Report: Bartok was always interested in folk song, both of his native Hungary, and from other countries around the [...]

Active Years: 1910-1981
Position: American Composer
Career Highlights: Adagio for Strings, Violin Concerto, Piano Concerto, Vanessa.
Career Totals: Three operas; two ballets; two symphonies; one each of string quartet, violin concerto, cello concerto, cello sonata, piano concerto and piano sonata; three “essays” for orchestra; miscellaneous orchestral and chamber pieces; dozens of songs and other vocal works.
Scouting Report: The [...]