Biography
Franz Schreker was born on 23 March 1878 in Monaco, the son of a Bohemian-born, Catholic-converted Jewish court photographer, and grew up in Vienna from 1888 after his father's death. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory from 1892 to 1900, where he came to know Alexander von Zemlinsky and Gustav Mahler, and in 1907 founded the Vienna Philharmonic Chorus, which he led until 1920. The 1912 premiere of his opera Der ferne Klang brought him international breakthrough; for a time he was, alongside Richard Strauss, the most performed opera composer in the German-speaking world. In 1920 he became director of the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, where he brought in figures such as Arnold Schoenberg and Paul Hindemith. Because of his Jewish origins, Schreker lost his positions in 1932/33 and found no further employment; he died in Berlin on 21 March 1934 after a stroke.
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