Alma Mahler was an Austrian composer and socialite who was known for her marriages and affairs with some of the leading artists of her time, specifically Gustav Mahler. Her historical importance lies in her role as a creative muse to her husbands and lovers. She was born in 1879 to a wealthy family in Vienna. Her father was Emil Schindler, a successful and respected landscape painter, and her mother, Anna Sofia Bergen, was a German opera singer. She had a sister, Grete, who was one year younger. Both girls were sent to a private school for women and they also took piano lessons from Adele Radnitzky-Mandlick. When Mahler was 15 years old, her father died from appendicitis, and afterwards she devoted herself to learning the piano. She also studied composition and piano with Josef Labor, a blind organist who understood her potential and encouraged her to practice and compose. In 1900 she began studying composition with Alexander von Zemlinsky, and they secretly fell in love. Her antisemitic ideals clashed with his Jewish background, and the relationship ended quickly. The following year, she attended the salon of Emil Zuckerkand, where she met Gustav Mahler. They quickly fell in love and became engaged after one month. The couple got married in 1902 and had two children together. Gustav required his wife to stop composing, which created an increasing resentment toward him. Her artistic suppression led to a period of depression and an affair with Walter Gropius, who was a German architect and Bauhaus founder. Upon learning of Alma's infidelity, Gustav began encouraging her to compose and helped her publish a collection of songs, which seemingly repaired their marriage and they lived happily together until 1911 when he passed away. From 1912 to 1914 she had an affair with Oskar Kokoschka, the Austrian artist. She inspired him to create several works, including a painting called "The Bride of the Wind." However, she ended the affair when he was called into the military, and she resumed her relationship with Gropius. They got married in 1915 and had a daughter together the following year. In 1917 Alma Mahler began an affair with the Austrian writer Franz Werfel, became pregnant, and gave birth to his son in 1918, but the baby was born prematurely and died after ten months. Gropius and Mahler agreed to a divorce a short while later, and it became official in 1920. She and Werfel remained together and got married in 1929; she changed her name to Alma Mahler-Werfel. Her daughter Manon, from the marriage with Gropius, died from polio in 1935. Three years later, Mahler-Werfel and her husband were forced to leave Austria to escape Nazi forces because Werfel was Jewish. They hiked through the Pyrenees Mountains, across Spain, to Portugal where they stayed for a month before heading to the United States. She and Werfel finally arrived safely in Las Angeles in 1940, where she became a popular personality among the European émigré community. Werfel passed away in 1945, and Mahler-Werfel moved to New York, and resumed her socialite lifestyle. She died in 1964 and was buried in the Grinzing Cemetery in Vienna near the graves of her daughter daughter, and Gustav Mahler. ~ RJ Lambert, Rovi