Born in New England in 1871, Frederick Shepherd Converse studied at Harvard but was at first urged by his father to a career in business. This he soon rejected in favour of music, moving to Munich for study with Rheinberger. On his return to America, he taught at the New England Conservatory and then at Harvard, while acquiring a reputation as one of the leading American composers of his time. In 1907 he retired from teaching in order to devote his time to composition and to the affairs of the Boston Opera Company. After war service, he returned in 1920 to the New England Conservatory, continuing there until 1938, two years before his death. His compositions include operas, the first of which was the first American opera to be staged at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and a series of symphonic poems. Of these last The Mystic Trumpeter, based on Walt Whitman, is the best known.