Italian composer Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) began composing music when he was just 12 years old and is best known for writing 39 operas. Born in Italy, Rossini spent much of his time in Paris, where he wrote his final opera, William Tell, in 1829. The most well-known piece from William Tell is its overture, comprising four sections that transition from one to the other without pause. The fourth section, called March of the Swiss Soldiers, is often used in popular media and is often used to depict quick movement or the galloping of horses. The overture paints a musical picture of life in the Swiss Alps, inviting the audience into the setting for the story that is about to unfold.

Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) began his musical training as a child, first studying violin with his father and as a choirboy at St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice, Italy. Becoming a priest by age 25, Vivaldi kept up his musical studies and in 1703 was appointed as a violin instructor at a school for orphaned girls in Venice. During his tenure there, he wrote several pieces for the girls to play. After his time at the orphanage, Vivaldi spent time traveling around Europe while composing music and eventually wrote his most well-known piece, The Four Seasons for Violin and Orchestra, which he completed in 1723.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) discovered his love for music while in college, where he began studying composition with the goal of writing music for orchestra. He began seriously composing music while serving at sea in the Russian Navy, later becoming a professor at the prestigious St. Petersburg Conservatory. Rimsky-Korsakov went on to compose 15 operas, several symphonies, choral and orchestral music and pieces for solo piano. Flight of the Bumblebee is an interlude from his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, written in 1899. The piece evokes the rapidly changing flight patterns of a bumblebee and is, despite being an incidental part of the opera as a whole, the most well-known piece from the opera, still frequently used in pop culture.

Russian composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) grew up in St. Petersburg and found his interest in music as a child. His father was a famous opera singer, so Stravinsky spent much of his childhood around many of the top Russian musicians of the time. He began taking piano lessons at age 9, though when it came time for him to attend college, he had decided he wanted to pursue a career in law. He then met Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and began taking composition lessons. In 1910 he was commissioned by the Ballets Russes (Russian Ballet) company in Paris to write the music to a new ballet about a magical creature called The Firebird; this ballet became Stravinsky's most well-known work and is still very often performed around the world today. After the success of The Firebird, Stravinsky gave up his potential law career and continued to compose. His music is forever known for its daring and provocative style, including his music for the ballet The Rite of Spring (1913), which was so controversial at the time that it caused a riot on opening night.

Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) was born to parents who were both musicians; he began taking piano lessons from his mother when he was 5 years old while his father worked as a professional musician. Because of this, Grieg was surrounded by music and attended several concerts during his childhood. Spending much of his time out in the Norwegian countryside, Grieg would imagine little creatures such as gnomes, trolls and elves in the forest as he and his mother took long walks, which went on to inspire several of his pieces. After studying music, Grieg married musician Nina Hagerup, who taught him all about Norwegian folk music. His love of his country, its nature and folk music led Grieg to use these folk songs in many of his compositions. His Piano Concerto was written in 1868 when he was just 24 years old. The piece gained widespread popularity after its premiere in 1869 and continues to be one of the most widely performed piano concertos in the world. The concerto contains three movements, opening with the Allegro molto moderato. This first movement opens with a roll from the timpani which leads directly into a first dramatic flourish from the solo piano, making this concerto opening incredibly unique.

Peruvian composer Jimmy López Bellido (b. 1978) took an early interest in music and studied at the National Conservatory of Music in Lima, Peru. After graduating, he moved to Helsinki, Finland, to continue his studies before eventually finishing his schooling at the University of California where he earned his Ph.D. in 2012. Winning several international music awards and even having been nominated for a Latin Grammy Award, López's music continues to be widely performed by the world's leading orchestras. His Fifth Symphony, Fantastica, serves as a musical telling of Michael Ende's novel The Neverending Story. The fifth movement, Auryn, is named for the magical medallion given to the two protagonists of the story, Bastian and Atreyu, to symbolize the unity of Fantastica and the human world. The movement depicts Bastian's journey back home to the human world after a long, arduous journey.