Arthur Seymour Sullivan was an English composer of Irish descent. He was born in the middle of the nineteenth century in London to a musician father. He showed musical talent from his early childhood, writing his first composition at the age of eight. At twelve, he joined the Chapel Royal as a chorister and received the Mendelssohn scholarship at fourteen, entering the Royal Academy of Music in the same year. After completing his education at the Leipzig Conservatoire at the age of nineteen, he returned to London to begin his career as a church organist and music teacher. In the same year, his graduation piece, ‘The Tempest’, was performed to great acclaim, establishing his reputation as a rising composer. Thereafter, he continued to work independently, earning great fame for his works. At the age of twenty-nine, he first collaborated with W. S. Gilbert, eventually creating fourteen operas with him and establishing a distinctive form of the English operetta. This apart, he also wrote two ballets, a number of choral and orchestral works as well as incidental music to various plays.
