A world-famous composer left his skull as a prop for Hamlet when he died!

André Tchaikowsky was a polish composer and pianist. He had shown musical talent from an early age, and his mother, an amateur pianist, was teaching him the piano when he was only four years old.

He studied at the State Music Academy in Sopot under Prof. Olga Iliwicka-Dąbrowska, and later at the State Music Academy in Warszawa under Prof. Stanisław Szpinalski.

Already during his studies he began developing his concert career, displaying his showmanship through public performances of Bach's Goldberg Variations, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 and astounding listeners with improvisations on any given theme.

Tchaikowsky died of colon cancer at the age of 46 in Oxford. In his will he left his body to medical research, and donated his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company, asking that it be used as a prop on stage. Tchaikowsky hoped that his skull would be used for the skull of Yorick in productions of Hamlet.