He wrote and performed the cello solos in the premieres of two of his earliest works, Suite for Cello and Orchestra, Op. In the early 1880s, he began composing orchestral music. He was a cello soloist in the Viennese orchestra of Eduard Strauss (younger brother of Johann Strauss II, the waltz king), and played in a court orchestra in Stuttgart. Herbert began playing the cello professionally while still a student at Stuttgart Conservatory. His European training and musical influences were to resurface later in the many works he composed while living in the United States.

After that, he attended Stuttgart Conservatory, where German conductor and composer Max Seifritz taught him in music theory and composition. For three years, he trained with German cellist Bernhard Cossman. He received musical training in multiple orchestral instruments before deciding to pursue studies as a cello soloist.

Herbert's mother remarried a German physician and moved the family to Germany.įrom an early age, Herbert showed remarkable musical aptitude. Herbert's father, a barrister, died when Herbert was young. Already an established musical figure of national stature by the late 1890s, he took the reins as conductor of the Pittsburgh Orchestra when the organization was in its infancy, and within six seasons, guided it to a competitive spot as one of the best city orchestras in the country.īorn in Dublin, Ireland, Victor Herbert was the grandson of Irish songwriter and author Samuel Lover. Although he lived in Pittsburgh for only six years, Victor Herbert's impact on the city's cultural life was significant.

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