At fifteen, Mahler moves to Vienna to study composition and piano - one of his teachers is Anton Bruckner, who also becomes a friend. Then in 1880 his European career starts. Mahler is named conductor in several cities, Kassel, Leipzig and Prague among others, he becomes opera director in Budapest and later, theater director in Hamburg. His successes contribute to making him a much sought-after conductor . He performs in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, France and Russia as a guest conductor.

Between 1897 and 1907, Mahler is first conductor and director of the Vienna Court Opera. There, he launches several important reforms : in his productions, singers perform as actors for the first time, and the Opera House, thanks to this innovation, reaches the highest standards. Around that time, Mahler also composes his 3rd to his 6th Symphonies, the Rückert-Lieder and the “Songs on the Death of Children”.

In 1908, Mahler becomes director of the Metropolitan Opera House and, in 1909, director of the New York Philharmonic Society . Gustav Mahler still often travels back to Europe: in 1910, the world premiere of his 8th Symphony achieves an enormous success. Back in New York in 1911, a bacteria-related heart disease is diagnozed, but doctors, both in New York and in Europe, are unable to cure him. Mahler dies in Vienna on May 18, 1911, and is buried in Grinzing Cemetery.