Composer of the Month 4/2013: Max Steiner (selected by Peter van Dessel / Belgium)

USA 16.9.1999    USA 25.2.2003 The video shows William Stromberg during a new recording of Max Steiner's music for "The Adventures of Don Juan" with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. The Austrian-American composer Max (Maximilian Raoul) Steiner was born on 10 May 1888 in Vienna. At the Academy of Music in Vienna, he was educated among others by Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss. In the early age of 16 he wrote his first operetta. From 1904 to 1914 Steiner worked as a conductor and arranger in the UK. Then he went to America, where in 1916 he composed his first film score. In 1929, Hollywood's attention to his talent and in 1933 he had the first sensational successsucceeded with the music for the film "King Kong". Max Steiner wrote some 300 film scores, including the Hollywood classic "Casablanca" and "Gone with the Wind". He was nominated for an Oscar 20 times - three times he received the coveted trophy. Max Steiner died on 28. December 1971 in Beverly Hills. In 2013 his birth anniversary comes up for the 125th time. More composer can be found in the members only section