Austrian composer and conductor Gustav Mahler was born into a poor Jewish family in the town of Kali?te in Bohemia. Mahler?s considerable musical talents, which he employed both as composer and conductor, were surpassed only by his ambition. From conductor of the court opera he rose to become its artistic director. He was also director of the Vienna Philharmonic 1898-1901, conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York from 1907, and starting in 1909 musical director of the New York Philharmonic Society as well. As a conductor, Mahler was faithful to the score; as a composer, he moved from lied to symphony, developing his own style, employing soloists and chorus, and breaking from what was conventional in instrumental. Mahler who died in 1911 in Vienna.