Naomi Lewin

If the story of the Broadway musical Rent sounds familiar, that’s because Jonathan Larson, the composer of the musical Rent, used the same plot for this musical as Puccini did for La Boheme. Other composers also used classical music when they wrote their Broadway hits. Kismet is adapted from compositions by Russian composer Alexander Borodin and The Song of Norway uses tunes by Edvard Grieg to tell the story of Grieg's life.

La Boheme is a famous opera, but Puccini wasn’t the only composer inspired by Bohemia. This week on Classics for Kids, you can hear Bohemian music written by a lot of other composers.

The Italian people have always had a love affair with opera, which has been a part of their life for more than 400 years. This week on Classics for Kids, take a trip through the history of Italian opera.

A lot of classical music was written just for kids. Peter and the Wolf is just the beginning -- there are also pieces based on children's books, toys, games, and more.

Claude Debussy’s daughter Emma-Claude began taking piano lessons at the age of 3. Her proud father composed the Children's Corner as a present for her, even though it was much too hard for her to play at the time. Instead, it entertained her because it starred her favorite toys.

Claude Debussy loved to experiment with new sounds. That got him into trouble when he was a student at the Paris Conservatory, but it turned out to be a good thing when he grew up. Inspired by Impressionist poets and visual artists around him, Debussy created Impressionism in music. You can hear the beautiful results this week on Classics for Kids.

Many composers used European dance forms in their work. Dvorak, Haydn, Chopin and Beethoven are just a few of the composers featured here.

When he was a young pianist, Johannes Brahms accompanied a Hungarian violinist, and fell in love with Hungarian music.  His own Hungarian-flavored dances were written to entertain his friends at parties.  Those friends convinced Brahms to publish his dances.  When the first set was a hit, Brahms wrote and published another set.

Brahms, Bach, and Beethoven are known as the "Three B’s" of classical music. Brahms always knew that he wanted to be a composer -- by the time he was six, he had thought up his own system for writing music down on a page.