Dublin-born Victor Herbert emigrated to America in 1896. He earned world renown as a composer of operettas for which he produced a wealth of memorable melodies that to this day have never lost their charm. Works such as The Fortune Teller, Babes in Toyland, Mlle Modiste, The Red Mill and Naughty Marietta firmly place Herbert as a giant figure in American popular music.

Herbert also produced a considerable amount of concert music – concertos, symphonic poems, suites, overtures and one of the earliest film scores. His orchestral miniatures have become standards in the semi-classical repertory and his greatest songs, writes Deems Taylor, are classics “as pure in outline as the melodies of Schubert and Mozart!”