Alban Berg

Composer. I was more interested in literature than music as a child and I did not begin to compose until I was fifteen, when I started to teach mymself music. I had little formal music education before I became a student of Arnold Schoenberg, in October 1904. With Schoenberg I studied counterpoint, music theory, and harmony. By 1906, I was studying music full-time; by 1907, I began composition lessons. My student compositions included five drafts for piano sonatas. I also wrote songs, including the well known Seven Early Songs (Sieben Frühe Lieder), three of which were first publicly performed in a concert that featured the music of Schoenberg's pupils in Vienna that year. My early sonata sketches eventually culminated in the Piano Sonata (Op. 1) (1907–8).
I studied with Schoenberg for six years until 1911; I admired him as a composer and mentor, and we remained close lifelong friends.
Other well known compositions of mine include the Lyric Suite, Three Pieces for Orchestra, the operas Wozzeck and Lulu, and the Chamber Concerto for violin, piano and 13 wind instruments.
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Berg died in Vienna, on Christmas Eve 1935, he was 50 years old.