Peter von Winter, baptized on August 28, 1754, in Mannheim, was a prominent German composer, violinist, conductor, and voice teacher. He passed away on October 17, 1825, in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria. Winter began his musical career as a child prodigy on the violin, playing in the Mannheim court orchestra from the age of ten. He studied violin under Wilhelm Cramer and Thaddäus Hampel and later composition with Georg Joseph Vogler.

In 1776, Winter was engaged as a violinist in the Mannheim court orchestra, and by 1777 he was conducting. When the court moved to Munich in 1778, Winter followed and became the conductor of the orchestra, later meeting Mozart. He married Marianne Grosser, the daughter of a tailor, in the same year. Winter was promoted to vice kapellmeister in 1787 and to kapellmeister in 1798, a position he held for most of his life.

Winter's career as a composer was marked by the creation of more than thirty operas between 1778 and 1820, with only a few being unsuccessful. His most popular opera, "Das unterbrochene Opferfest," was produced in Vienna in 1796, earning him recognition as an opera composer. He composed "Die Pyramiden von Babylon" and "Das Labyrinth" with librettos by Emanuel Schikaneder, the latter being a sequel to Mozart's "Die Zauberflöte," premiered in Vienna in 1798.

Winter's international acclaim grew as he traveled to London, where he produced operas such as "La grotta di Calipso" in 1803 and "Il ratto di Proserpina" in 1804, both with librettos by Lorenzo Da Ponte, and "Zaira" in 1805. His opera "Maometto," composed in 1817 and premiered at La Scala in Milan, remains occasionally revived and recorded. His last opera, "Der Sänger und der Schneider," premiered in Munich in 1820.

In addition to operas, Winter composed concertos for wind instruments and orchestra and sacred music starting in 1820. He founded the Musikalische Akademie in Munich in 1811, which is remembered today in the Akademiekonzerte of the Bavarian State Orchestra. Winter was knighted on March 23, 1814, and continued to contribute to the musical world until his death in Munich at the age of 71.