I started listening to classical music around the time I started playing the violin. It is also so easy to collect classical CD's because most places sell many of them for so cheap. I liked to listen to classical because it is heard all over the place. Warner Brothers put a lot of famous pieces into their Loony Toons cartoons so I remember hearing them as a kid. It also introduced me to new and beautiful sounding music. I listened to a lot of Beatles before and the musical talent from them carried over to the musical genius of many of the composers. Everyone likes some piece of classical music literature, if it be a well-known one like "Ride of the Valkyries" or a lesser-known one such as one of Vivaldi's Four Violin Concertos. My favorite composers are Pablo Sarasate, Camille Saint-Saëns, Antonio Vivaldi, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I like Sarasate and Saint-Saëns for their extremely difficult violin literature, and Vivaldi and Mozart for their melodic, and famous, pieces. My favorite pieces are: "Tzigeunerweisen" and "Introduction et Tarantella" by Sarasate, "Introduction et Rondo Cappriccioso" by Saint-Saëns, "Piano Concerto in D minor" by W.A. Mozart, and "Concerto in E minor, Opus 64" by Mendelssohn. The latter is a truly enchanting piece, as I have fallen in love with it. I have put a MIDI file of it here so you can listen to it as well. There are three movements: an Allegro molto appassionato, an Andante, and an Allegretto non troppo. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. To find out a little more about Mendelssohn and his concerto got my info page about him (still undergoing research). I also have an information page about the little known violin prodigy Pablo de Sarasate (also being researched).