Igor Stravinsky was born in 1882 and lived for almost ninety years before dying in 1971. What he accomplished during his lifetime changed the world of music and inspired many musicians to come. He was a very disciplined pianist who loved to compose and think outside the box. But how did he start his musical career? What was his music like? Why did he compose and for whom? Igor Stravinsky was born near Saint Petersburg, Russia, into a very musical family. Her father was famous for being an operatic bass and her mother was a pianist. Their home was filled with art, literature and music, and Igor began piano lessons at age nine. But his parents didn't want him to follow in their footsteps, so they encouraged him to study law, which he did. He went to study at university and it was there that he became friends with Vladimir Rimsky-Korsakov, a famous composer, to whom Stravinsky apprenticed for three years. After a year and a half of this excellent musical education, Stravinsky began his first symphony. It was during this time that he graduated from college and married his cousin, Catherine Nossenko. When he and his wife went to the countryside that summer, Stravinsky promised Rimsky-Korsakov, his good friend and mentor, to send him the finished music of the piece he was working on. A few weeks later he sent her the completed composition, his famous Firworks. But the package was returned with a message: “Undelivered following the death of the recipient.” It was a sad time for Stravinsky, but also full of promise, because before his death, Rimsky-Korsakov organized the performance of some of Stravinsky's music. In the audience of one of these performances was Sergei Diaghilev, a terrible... middle of paper ...... and his mother, as well as the outbreak of World War II, he left France and went to the United States where he settled, remarried and lived out the rest of his days. During the last years of his life, his health began to decline. He died in 1971 and, at his request, was buried next to Sergei Diaghilev on the island of San Michele. Stravinsky was a great composer who profoundly influenced the world of music with his original compositions and radical rhythms.Works Cited: 1. Smith, Jane Stuart and Betty Carlson. “The gift of music: the great compositions and their influence.” Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books. 1987. Print. April 2014.2. "The World Book Encyclopedia". World Book, Inc., 1991. Print. April 2014.3. "Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky". 2014. Biography.com website. Web. April 2014. http://www.biography.com/people/igor-fyodorovich-stravinsky-9497118.