Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler is an Austrian conductor and composer. He grew up in a Jewish, German-speaking family, and spent his youth in Jihlava. He received his musical education at the Vienna Conservatory. After graduating, he worked as a bandleader and conductor on important stages in what was then Austria-Hungary and Germany (eg in Bad Hall, Ljubljana, Olomouc, Prague, Leipzig, Budapest or as chief conductor of the Hamburg Opera). His conducting career culminated in a ten-year bachelor's career at the Vienna Court Opera (1897–1907) and later at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. During his engagement in Vienna, he faced growing anti-Semitic rhetoric, although he converted to the Catholic faith. He was greatly affected by the death of his daughter Marie and the protracted marital crisis, he suffered from feelings of loneliness. In 1910 he attended consultations with Sigmund Freud. In February 1911, he conducted his last concert in New York. He returned to Vienna, where he died at the age of 50.