Nadia Boulanger Nadia Boulanger

Juliette Nadia Boulanger (French: [ʒy.ljɛt na.dja bu.lɑ̃.ʒe]; 16 September 1887 – 22 October 1979) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. She is notable for having taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century. She also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist.

From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire but, believing that she had no particular talent as a composer, she gave up writing music and became a teacher. In that capacity, she influenced generations of young composers, especially those from the United States and other English-speaking countries. Among her students were those who became leading composers, soloists, arrangers and conductors, including Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Quincy Jones, John Eliot Gardiner, Elliott Carter, Dinu Lipatti, Igor Markevitch, Virgil Thomson, David Diamond, İdil Biret, Daniel Barenboim, Philip Glass and Astor Piazzolla.

Boulanger taught in the US and England, working with music academies including the Juilliard School, the Yehudi Menuhin School, the Longy School, the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, but her principal base for most of her life was her family's flat in Paris, where she taught for most of the seven decades from the start of her career until her death at the age of 92.

Boulanger was the first woman to conduct many major orchestras in America and Europe, including the BBC Symphony, Boston Symphony, Hallé, New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia orchestras. She conducted several world premieres, including works by Copland and Stravinsky.

Key works

Vocal

• Allons voir sur le lac d'argent (A. Silvestre), 2 voices, piano, 1905
• Ecoutez la chanson bien douce (Verlaine), 1 voice, orchestra, 1905
• Les sirènes (Grandmougin), female chorus, orchestra, 1905
• A l'aube (Silvestre), chorus, orchestra, 1906
• A l'hirondelle (Sully Prudhomme), chorus, orchestra, 1908
• La sirène (E. Adenis/Desveaux), 3 voices, orchestra, 1908
• Dnégouchka (G. Delaquys), 3 voices, orchestra, 1909
• Over 30 songs for 1 voice, piano, incl.:

Extase (Hugo), 1901

Désepérance (Verlaine), 1902

Cantique de soeur Béatrice (Maeterlinck), 1909

Une douceur splendide et sombre (A. Samain), 1909

Larme solitaire (Heine), 1909

Une aube affaiblie (Verlaine), 1909

Prière (Bataille), 1909

Soir d'hiver (N. Boulanger), 1915

Au bord de la nuit, Chanson, Le couteau, Doute, L'échange (Mauclair), 1922

J'ai frappé (R. de Marquein), 1922

Chamber and solo works

• 3 pièces, organ, 1911, arr. cello, piano
• 3 pièces, piano, 1914
• Pièce sur des airs populaires flamands, organ, 1917
• Vers la vie nouvelle, piano, 1917

Orchestral

• Allegro, 1905
• Fantaisie variée, piano, orchestra, 1912

With Raoul Pugno

• Les heures claires (Verhaeren), 8 songs, 1 voice, piano, 1909
• La ville morte (d'Annunzio), opera, 1910–13