Johann Nepomuk Karl Maria Rott (1 August 1858 – 25 June 1884) was an Austrian composer and organist.

His music is little-known today, though he received high praise in his time from Gustav Mahler and Anton Bruckner.

His father Carl Mathias Rott, who married her in 1862 (born 1807; né Roth), was a famous comic actor in Vienna who was crippled in 1874 by a stage accident which led to his death two years later.

He studied piano with Leopold Landskron and Josef Dachs, harmony with Hermann Graedener, counterpoint and composition—like Mahler—with Franz Krenn.

For the final year of his studies in 1878, Rott submitted the first movement of his Symphony in E major to a composition contest.

After completing the Symphony in 1880, Rott showed the work to both Brahms and Hans Richter, in order to get it played.

Brahms did not like the fact that Bruckner exerted great influence on the Conservatory students, and even told Rott that he had no talent whatsoever and that he should give up music.

Mahler wrote of Rott a musician of genius ... who died unrecognized and in want on the very threshold of his career.

[citation needed] Mahler also spoke well of Rott's Lieder, of which all eight surviving complete songs have been performed in concert since 2002 and four sung by Dominik Wörner were recorded in 2009 on the Ars label.

1 in E major was not premiered until 1989; it was played by the Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Gerhard Samuel [ru], in a performing edition prepared by Paul Banks.