Active Years: 1864- 1949

Position: German composer.

Career Highlights: Der Rosenkavalier, Also Sprach Zarathustra, (2001 theme song), Death and Transfiguration.

Career Totals: 15 operas, over twenty orchestral works, works for piano, almost 200 songs, and various chamber music.

Scouting Report: The son of a famous horn player, Strauss was a precocious child who had already composed a symphony by the age of 14. He was an important developer of the idea of tone poems, orchestral pieces with a story to tell, and his ideas about imitating sounds and painting a musical picture were both welcomed and harshly criticized. A couple of the most famous of this type of work are Don Juan and Til Eulenspiegel.

Teammates and Contemporaries: An early Wagner-ite, Strauss was also a contemporary of Mahler.

Fun Statistic: His music is incredibly difficult — almost always appearing on auditions for orchestral position.