Although Beethoven had many teachers, the relationship that is most notable is the time with which he studied with Haydn.  In 1782, at the age of 12, Beethoven published his first work, 9 Variations in C Minor for Piano.

He suffered a great loss on July 17, 1787, when his mother passed away.

After quite a bit of studying from several other teachers, Beethoven was becoming relatively well known & successful enough to live quite comfortably. He was the first composer to become a freelance by choice.  The first concert of his own responsibility occurred on April 2, 1800.  He launched his first Symphony and introduced his world famous Septet Op. 20.

Despite his success as a musician, his personality left something to be desired.  He seldom took care of his appearance.  His moods changed constantly.  By nature, Beethoven was impatient, impulsive, unreasonable and intolerant; deafness added suspicion and paranoia to these attributes. He would often misunderstand the meaning of a facial expression and accuse faithful friends of disloyalty or conspiracy. He would fly into a rage at the slightest provocation, and he would turn on friends, dismissing them curtly as being unworthy of his friendship. But, likely as not, he would write a letter the next day or so, telling them how noble and good they were and how he had misjudged them.  He was the picture of eccentricity.

Beethoven's career as a virtuoso pianist was brought to an end when he began to experience his first symptoms of deafness. In a letter written to his friend Karl Ameda on 1 July 1801, he admitted he was experiencing signs of deafness.  With the end of his career as a virtuoso pianist inevitable, he plunged into composing. It offered a much more precarious living than that of a performer, especially when his compositions had already shown themselves to be in advance of popular taste & would not become famous until long after his death.  After battling pneumonia Beethoven died on March 26, 1827.