Musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was born in Salzburg, Austria. The child prodigy played the violin at age four, wrote his first minuet at five, and first symphony at nine.

By the age of 12, he had written sonatas, concertos, and symphonies. Three of his best-known compositions are the short work for orchestra Eine Kleine Nachtmusik ( A Little Night Music, 1787), Don Giovanni (1787), and the Marriage of Figaro (1785)

In his short life, Mozart created over 600 masterpieces. Because he was peerless in his accomplishments, like Michelangelo, many in his time claimed his treasured music to be divinely inspired, the voice of God.

"People make a mistake who think that my art has come easily to me," he once explained. "Nobody has devoted so much time and thought to composition as I. There is not a famous master whose music I have not studied over and over."

Certainly, listening to Mozart is good for your health, lifts the spirit...and... may even make you smarter!? A 1993 University of California Irvine study showed listening to a Mozart piano sonata caused a rise of the spatial IQ in college students because of the similarity between the rhythms of brain wave patterns and baroque music.

This so-called "Mozart Effect" was challenged in August 1999 by a Harvard Medical School researcher who did similar testing and saw no significant IQ improvement.

IQ boost or not, what is significant is that the music of Mozart is greatly "love, love, loved" today and continues to inspire, heal, and create overwhelming enthusiasm for life.

Love is the soul of genius.