Wilhelm Berger (1861 — 1911) was born in Boston, USA, in 1861 but was back in the family’s homeland of Germany by the time he was a year old. Wilhelm’s musical talent showed from an early age: he gave a recital of his own music at the age of 14, and became a student at the “Königliche Musikhochschule” in Berlin when he was 17. His teachers were Rudmff (piano) and Kiel (composition). Berger joined the staff of the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in 1888, combining teaching with work as a composer, pianist and conductor. He became a Professor in 1903, and in the same year was appointed the Court Kapellmeister to the Duke of Saxony-Meiningen. The Court Orchestra had built up a formidable reputation under Hans von Billow and its guest conductors included Liszt, Brahms, Wagner and Richard Strauss. He held the post until
his death in 1911 and was succeeded by Max Reger. Berger was a prolific composer but left only a few orchestral works, concentrating more on chamber and piano music.

He also wrote many choral works and lieder with orchestral accompaniment which can stand alongside those of Wolf and Richard Strauss.

Berger had a thorough grasp of the techniques of composition and his music reveals the passion and spiritual commitment of a late romantic, and foreshadows changes and developments yet to come, notably in the music of Reger. He was not a pioneer and his music, though appreciated, was too traditional to compete with the innovations of Debussy, Stravinsky and Schoenberg. Berger was not a good promoter of his own interests, and his death at the relatively young age of 49, followed by the upheavals of World War I, all combined to conceal his music from public view.