George Frideric Handel was born in Halle, in the Duchy of Magdeburg, to a barber-surgeon father who initially discouraged his musical ambitions. Handel went on to become one of the towering composers of the Baroque era, settling in London where he wrote Italian operas, English oratorios including the famous 'Messiah,' and music for royal occasions like 'Water Music' and 'Music for the Royal Fireworks.'
Handel's father wanted him to study law, and it took the intervention of a duke who heard young George play the organ to convince his father to allow music lessons. He trained in Halle and Hamburg before an extended stay in Italy, where he absorbed the Italian operatic style that would define his early London career.
Handel arrived in London in 1712 and quickly became the city's dominant purveyor of Italian opera, a genre English audiences eventually tired of. He pivoted brilliantly to English-language oratorios, sacred works performed without staging or costumes, and it was in this form that he wrote 'Messiah' in 1741, reportedly completing the entire 260-page score in just 24 days.
He became a naturalized British citizen in 1727 and wrote coronation anthems still performed at British coronations today, including 'Zadok the Priest.' Blind in his final years, he continued conducting performances of 'Messiah' from memory, dying in London in 1759, and was buried in Westminster Abbey with a memorial statue that shows him holding the manuscript of his most famous work.