Portal:Classical music/Selected article/2

The Mozart family grand tour was a 1763–1766 journey around the capitals and other major cities of western Europe, undertaken by Leopold Mozart, his wife Anna Maria, and their musically gifted children Maria Anna (Nannerl) and Wolfgang Amadeus. Leopold was a court musician to the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, and by 1763 held the post of deputy Kapellmeister. He obtained a protracted leave of absence so that the precocious talents of his children, then aged eleven and seven respectively, could be demonstrated to the wider world. The children's extraordinary skills had already been revealed during visits to Munich and Vienna in 1762. In Vienna they had played before the Empress Maria Theresa, and a schedule of public performances had earned considerable sums of money.