Chopin's father, Nicolas Chopin, by Mieroszewski, 1829

In October 1810, six months after Chopin's birth, the family moved to Warsaw, where his father acquired
a post teaching French at the Warsaw Lyceum, then housed in the Saxon Palace. Chopin lived with his
family in the Palace grounds. The father played the flute and violin;[15] the mother played the piano and
gave lessons to boys in the boarding house that the Chopins kept.[16] Chopin was of slight build, and
even in early childhood was prone to illnesses.[15]

Chopin may have had some piano instruction from his mother, but his first professional music tutor, from
1816 to 1821, was the Czech pianist Wojciech Żywny.[17] His elder sister Ludwika also took lessons from
Żywny, and occasionally played duets with her brother.[18] It quickly became apparent that he was a
child prodigy. By the age of seven he had begun giving public concerts, and in 1817 he composed two
polonaises, in G minor and B-flat major.[19] His next work, a polonaise in A-flat major of 1821, dedicated
to Żywny, is his earliest surviving musical manuscript.[17]

In 1817 the Saxon Palace was requisitioned by Warsaw's Russian governor for military use, and the
Warsaw Lyceum was reestablished in the Kazimierz Palace (today the rectorate of Warsaw University).
Chopin and his family moved to a building, which still survives, adjacent to the Kazimierz Palace. During
this period, he was sometimes invited to the Belweder Palace as playmate to the son of the ruler of
Russian Poland, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich of Russia; he played the piano for Konstantin Pavlovich
and composed a march for him. Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, in his dramatic eclogue, "Nasze Przebiegi"
("Our Discourses", 1818), attested to "little Chopin's" popularity.[20]