Born in Vienna, Maria von Kutschera was living as a novice at the Benedictine Convent Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg when she was sent by her Mother Superior as a governess to the househould of Baron Georg Ritter von Trapp to look after his seven children, left motherless after the death of his wife.

In 1927, Maria became the Baron's wife and the Trapp family's legend found its beginnings. In the early 30s she founded a family choir with which she had frequent public performances while they still remained in Austria.

After fleeing the country shortly after Hitler's annexation of Austria in 1938, the family with ten children had no income other than from their musical engagements known as "The Trapp Family Singers". Their success in the USA proved to be enough to allow them to settle there. In 1941, they purchased a farm in Stowe, Vermont, which eventually became the Trapp Family Lodge.

Today the Trapp Family Lodge is a flourishing hotel, and the great-grandchildren of Captain Trapp make "New Von Trapp family Singers Climb Every Mountain".