Karl Goldmark

Hungarian-born Karl Goldmark was a composer who overcame poverty and lack of formal training to achieve critical and popular renown. Though hardly prolific, Goldmark produced several important operas, symphonies, and concertos, finding fame in Vienna, his adopted city. A cantor’s son, born into an enormous and nearly destitute Jewish family, Goldmark learned the piano and violin before turning to orchestral music. On the whole, he rejected the avant-garde for the traditional, finding original variations within classic musical forms.