Erich Wolfgang Korngold (May 29, 1897 – November 29, 1957) was a Moravian-born American composer and conductor. A child prodigy, he became one of the most important and influential composers in Hollywood history. He was a noted pianist and composer of classical music, along with music for Hollywood films, and the first composer of international stature to write Hollywood scores

When he was 11, his ballet Der Schneemann (The Snowman), became a sensation in Vienna, followed by his Second Piano Sonata, which he wrote at age 13, which was played throughout Europe. His one-act operas Violanta and Der Ring des Polykrates were premiered in Munich in 1916. At 23, his opera Die tote Stadt (The Dead City) premiered in Hamburg and Cologne. In 1921 he conducted the Hamburg Opera. 

During the 1920s he re-orchestrated, re-arranged and nearly re-composed several operettas by Johann Strauss ll. By 1931 he was a professor of music at the Vienna State Academy.

In 1939, he wrote his Die Kathrin Op. 28 opera and it is the Letter Song from this opera we are featuring in this week's show. 

He lived in Los Angeles, not far from Warner Brothers Studio, where he worked. In October 1956 he suffered a severe stroke and although he partially recovered, he endured many physical and emotional difficulties before his death on November 29, at the age of 60, the following year.