Gustav Mahler

Born 7 July 1860 in Bohemia to Jewish parents of humble origins, Mahler showed musical gifts early and graduated from the Vienna Conservatory in 1878. He climbed through conducting posts across Europe until 1897, when he converted to Catholicism to become director of the Vienna Court Opera - a decade marked by innovative productions, relentless standards, and constant attacks from the anti-Semitic press. Late in life he briefly led New York's Metropolitan Opera and the Philharmonic. Composing was a part-time pursuit, but he wrote for large orchestral forces and operatic soloists; the works were frequently controversial, though his Second Symphony and the 1910 premiere of his Eighth were triumphs. He died 18 May 1911, his music largely neglected until after 1945, when a new generation rediscovered it and made him one of the most performed composers of the modern age.