Johann Strauss, Jr. was born in Vienna, where his father was an enormously famous musician. When the elder Strauss decided that Johann, Jr. should be a banker, his mother encouraged him to go into music.
When he was 19, Johann Strauss, Jr. started his own orchestra, and conducted his first public concert. Eventually, people began to realize that the younger Strauss was even better than his father.
Strauss toured internationally with his orchestra. And everywhere he went, he wrote new music dedicated to the places he visited. In addition to all the waltzes and marches he wrote, Johann Strauss, Jr. composed 16 operettas — a very popular form of entertainment in his day.
