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In April 1904, Richard Strauss undertook a whirlwind tour of the United States in which he was heralded as the “lion of the musical hour.” Four years later in January 1908, Gustav Mahler made his own American debut, inaugurating a spectacular but troubled relationship with both the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. Their receptions could not have been more different. In this course we use Strauss and Mahler as a lens through which to understand both German and American art at the Fin de Siècle. We will discuss American concert culture, performance practice, and the phenomenon of the celebrity concert tour. We will explore the works that Strauss and Mahler wrote and premiered in this period and their increasingly divergent careers. Finally, we will investigate how Americans, grappling with European art, tried to define their own.