Beethoven is one of my heroes because he has done so many great things for music.

In his lifetime, he wrote so many outstanding pieces of music, including nine symphonies, five piano concertos, one violin concerto, 32 piano sonatas and 16 pieces for string quartets.

In his late 20s, he began to lose his hearing, and by the last decade of his life he was almost completely deaf. That never stopped him from writing music, though.

He said, “What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven.”

—Chelsea May