Victor Herbert

Victor Herbert was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1859. His father died when Victor was an infant. His mother married a German physician, and the family moved to Stuttgart when Herbert was seven years old. In Stuttgart, he studied cello and entered the Stuttgart Conservatory in 1877 to study with Max Seifritz. He played in various orchestras, including the Viennese orchestra of Eduard Strauss, successor to his brother Johann. This early experience playing the light classical repertoire of the Strauss orchestra influenced his later interest in composing operettas. In 1881, while playing in the court orchestra in Stuttgart, he met his future wife, soprano Therese Foerster. In 1886, the newlyweds moved to America, where Therese sang at the Metropolitan Opera and Victor served as principal cellist in the Met's orchestra. 

Herbert composed several works that gained recognition in serious-music circles. He began to find his unique niche, however, with the premiere of his first operetta, Prince Ananias (1894). He was enjoying great success in that genre when he accepted the post of conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1898. Subsequently, he built the orchestra's reputation to rank alongside that of the Boston Symphony and the New York Philharmonic. After a disagreement with the Pittsburgh Orchestra's management in 1904, he resigned and formed the Victor Herbert orchestra. With that group he specialized in performing programs of light orchestral music. His rise to fame accelerated with the success of his operettas Babes in Toyland (1903), The Red Mill (1906), The Rose of Algeria (1908) Naughty Marietta (1910), and Sweethearts (1913), The Only Girl (1914) Though he composed two operas, Natoma (1911) and Madeleine (1914), his legacy remains his lighter works.

Herbert championed composers' rights and was instrumental in advocating for the passage of the American copyright law of 1909. He co-founded, along with John Philip Sousa and Irving Berlin, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers in 1914. He served that landmark organization as a vice-president and director until his death in 1924