Orchestra Conductor. He is considered as one of the most accomplished orchestra conductors of the 20th century. In 2011 after the BBC poll, it was announced that he was "the greatest conductor of all time." Born Karl Ludwig Bonifacius Kleiber, he was the son of a well-known Austrian conductor Erich Kleiber and an American mother, Ruth Goodrich. After the Nazi Party came to power in Germany in 1933, his father resigned from the Berlin Opera House in protest against the Nazi Party's oppressive policies, especially of the Jews. In January of 1935, his family left Germany, basing their home in Buenos Aires in Argentina. His family became Argentinean citizens in 1936. Transitioning from a German-speaking formal education to a Spanish-speaking one impacted his education. After attending private boarding schools in Santiago, Chile, he was encouraged by his father to pursue any career other than music. In 1949 he started chemistry courses at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich before changing his major to music theory and piano. In 1952 he made his debut as a pianist in La Plata, Argentina. Sporadically, he conducted his father's orchestra in Buenos Aires. On February 12, 1955 he made his conducting debut in Europe with the operetta "Gasparone" at Potsdam Theater in Germany. Having some professional disappointments, he was Kapellmeister or conductor of several orchestras before accepting his last permanent post in Stuttgart from 1966 to 1973. Not only was he performing for studio recordings, but his performances were being aired on television. This followed with him being a freelanced conductor and being able to choose when, where and whether he would step onto the podium. With a goal of perfectionism, he required long hours of rehearsals. He had an elusive, eccentric personality, often cancelling performances at the last minute and avoiding press interviews. He conducted orchestras in Scotland and at the Royal Opera House in London. His only United States performances were with Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1978 and again in 1983, and with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1988 and again in 1990 with five performances of "Othello". In 1994 he conducted his formal farewell retirement concert and in 1995, his body weakens with a fractured leg that would limit his standing on a podium. He did conduct on a rare occasion with his last being January of 1999. During his career, he conducted only 96 orchestral concerts and about 620 opera performances. He triumphed with "Der RosenKavalier" in Vienna, "Othello" and "Carmen." He only released nine studio recordings over the course of his five-decade career. During his career, he received numerous awards and honors including the Grand Merit Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1961 he married Stanislava Brezovar, a beautiful Slovenian ballerina, and the couple had a son and a daughter. With his wife's sudden death in December of 2003, he was emotionally drained. His wife died six months prior to his own death from untreated prostate cancer. His death from a "long illness" was not announced to the public until a week after his private burial.