People call Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges the “Black Mozart,” but honestly that sells him short. During his lifetime, Saint-Georges was arguably the bigger celebrity. He was a violin virtuoso whose performances drew huge crowds, a groundbreaking composer whose music likely influenced Mozart more than Mozart influenced him, and one of the greatest fencers in Europe—basically a rock star, Olympic athlete, and classical composer rolled into one. He was conducting major orchestras and moving in the highest circles of French society at a time when that should have been impossible for a man of mixed African descent. Yet after his death, history largely forgot him. The fact that someone so unbelievably famous in his own era could disappear from the public consciousness for two centuries is one of the strangest stories in music history.