Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany in 1685. When he was 10 his parents died and he was brought up by his elder brother Johann Christoph Bach who was the organist at Ohrdruf and taught him the organ and clavier At 15 he became a chorister at Michaelskirche, later becoming the organist at Neukirche Arnstadt, and when he was 19 he walked 370 km to hear Buxtehude play in Lubeck.
In 1707 he married his cousin Maria Barbara Bach and moved to the ducal court at Weimar as Konzertmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen. Here he gave recitals and wrote much instrumental music including the Brandenburg Concertos and the first book of The Well Tempered Clavier.
Maria died in 1720 and Bach married Anna Magdalena Wilcken an accomplished singer and harpsichordist. It was for her that he wrote the collection of keyboard pieces The Anna Magdalena Notebook.
Other major compositions included the Goldberg Variations of 1722, the St Mathew Passion of 1727, The Musical Offering of 1747 and the monumental work The Art of Fugue.
He is celebrated as one of the world's greatest musicians, his main achievement being his development of polyphony. He had a profound influence on Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn