Lehár was born in Komáron in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today the town is called Komárno and it is in Slovakia. He was the eldest son of a bandmaster in the Austro-Hungarian army. He studied violin and composition at the Prague Conservatory. Antonín Dvořák told him he should be a composer. After graduation in 1899 he joined his father's band in Vienna, as assistant bandmaster. In 1902 he became conductor at the historic Vienna Theater an der Wien, where his first opera "Wiener Frauen" was performed in November of that year.