Felix Mendelssohn was born on February 3rd, 1809 in Hamburg Germany, the son of Leah Salomon, and a wealthy Jewish banker, Abraham Mendelssohn, and the grandson of rabbi and philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. His full name was Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.

In order to escape the problems of  anti-Semitism that was widespread in Germany at that time, Felix Mendelssohn's parents baptized their four children, Fanny, Rebekah, Felix, and Paul in the Lutheran Church, and converted  to Lutheran themselves in 1816. When they moved from Hamburg to Berlin, his father adopted the second surname Bartholdy but Felix chose to keep the last name of Mendelssohn.In Berlin the young Mendelssohn studied the piano under Ludwig Berger and composition with Karl. F. Zelter.  He gave his first piano recital at age nine, and began composing at the age of ten. And between the ages of twelve and fourteen, Mendelssohn composed Concerts for violin and strings, Concerts for two pianos, Concerts for piano and violin and twelve symphonies for strings.

In 1825, he composed the Octet in E flat for four violins, two violas, and two cellos and in 1826, the same year he entered Berlin University, he composed the overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream based on the Shakespeare's play. In 1827 he composed his only opera The Marriage of Camacho op 10.
Mendelssohn was a great admirer of J.S. Bach, and in March 1829 he conducted a performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion, which had not been performed since Bach's death in 1750. Felix Mendelssohn was considered responsible for the rebirth of J.S. Bach's choral music that remains popular to this day.
Later that same year, he toured England and Scotland and was so inspired by the county side that he composed a number of  his works on what he saw there, including the Hebrides Overture and the Third Symphony, the 'Scottish'.

Mendelssohn travelled throughout Europe for the next few years and while in Italy he was inspired to write his Fourth Symphony, the 'Italian' which he completed in1833. The following year he was appointed conductor of the Lower Rhine Festival in Cologne and in1835 became conductor of the Leipzing Gewandhaus Orchestra.
In 1837 Felix Mendelssohn married Cecile Jeanrenaud, the daughter of a Protestant clergyman. It was said to be a happy marriage and the couple had five children: Carl, Marie, Paul, Felix, and Lilli
Mendelssohn suffered from poor health during the latter years of his life, and when his sister Fanny suffered a stroke while rehearsing for a Sunday concert and died on May 14th, 1847, Mendelssohn sank into a deep depression from which he never really recovered. He had considered Fanny as his best friend and companion. He expressed that loss in his F minor String Quartet Op. 80, before his own death on November 4th 1847, just six months after the death of his sister. He was 38 years old.

His funeral was held at the Paulinerkirche in Leipzig and His body was shipped by train to Berlin where he was buried next to his sister in the Trinity Cemetery in Berlin-Kreuzberg.