Frédéric Chopin was born to a Polish mother and a French father in Poland, west of Warsaw, on March 1st 1810. Chopin was composing and writing poetry at six, and gave his first public concerto performance at the age of eight. He became a leading advocate of „absolute music”, producing some of the earliest Romantic pieces and arguably the finest body of solo music for the piano. In 1836 Chopin met the novelist George Sand (alias Aurore Dudevant), and so began one of the most famous love affairs in the history of music. It was during this period that he became friends with many of the artists of the day, including Franz Liszt. By 1841, both sets of Chopin's Etudes had been published. They went on to become indispensable tones for piano students everywhere. Chopin also travelled and toured Germany and England, becoming widely regarded as one of the greatest artists of the Romantic era. His harmonic innovations foreshadow those of Brahms and Wagner while his thematic work had a notable influence as far as Russia.