Erich Kleiber

Erich Kleiber decided to become a conductor while still a student at the Prague Conservatory after hearing Gustav Mahler conducting his Sixth Symphony. As choirmaster at the German Theater in Prague, he made his conducting début in 1911 directing the music for a stage comedy. A composer in his student years, his works include violin and piano concertos, orchestral and chamber works. Following a series of appointments as conductor at Darmstadt, Barmen-Eberfeld, Düsseldorf, and Mannheim, he became general music director of the Berlin State Opera in 1923. In addition to the mainstream repertory, Kleiber introduced unfamiliar works such as Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, Janacek's Jenufa, Bittner's Das Roseng?rtlein, and, after an astounding 132 rehearsals, gave the first U.S. performance of Berg's Wozzek in 1924. His U.S. debut as an orchestral conductor was with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1930.