 Felix Mendelssohn was born on 3 February 1809 , in Hamburg , at the time an independent city @-@ state , in the same house where , a year later , the dedicatee and first performer of his Violin Concerto , Ferdinand David , was to be born . Mendelssohn 's father was the banker Abraham Mendelssohn , the son of the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn . His mother was Lea Salomon , a member of the <unk> family and a sister of Jakob Salomon Bartholdy . Mendelssohn was the second of four children ; his older sister Fanny also displayed exceptional and precocious musical talent . 
