This list of composers is continuously updated and does not claim to be complete. Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer, conductor and theatre director. He visited the city of Leipzig over forty times. Richard Strauss was born in Munich on June 11th, He was the son of Franziskus Strauss, the first horn player of the court orchestra, and Josephine Strauss, whose family had run a beer brewing business for generations and was one of the richest families in Munich.
Music played a major role in the Strauss household through his father, and so Richard Strauss began composing at the age of six.
Soon court conductor Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer taught him composition and his first opus was written β a festival march for large orchestra. From Richard Strauss studied philosophy and art history at the University of Munich. However, he soon abandoned his studies in order to devote himself more to his musical work.
His compositional works were performed early on and in he took up a position as music director at the Meiningen court. The following year, after a trip to Italy, he became third music director at the court opera in Munich. Shortly before the premiere of Wagner's Die Feen The Fairies , which he was to conduct, he was withdrawn from the project, working first as assistant at the Bayreuth Festival in and then as second music director at the court theatre in Weimar.
Due to health problems, Strauss embarked on a journey to Greece in , which he extended to Egypt. Almost a year later he returned to Weimar. The tone poems written during this period were performed throughout Germany, and Strauss was also in demand as a conductor in many European countries. During his time in Berlin, he went on many trips, including to America. In he gave up the post again and composed and conducted in many different countries. With the National Socialists' seizure of power, Strauss began to be appropriated as a person and composer.
