Composer · 1912 - 1997
Jean Françaix
Biography
Jean (René Désiré) Françaix
(b Le Mans, 23 May 1912; d Paris, 25 Sept 1997). French composer and pianist.
He was born into a musical family: his mother was a singer and teacher of singing, his father Alfred a composer, pianist, musicologist and director of the Le Mans Conservatoire, and it was they who shaped his earliest musical education. His precocious gifts were recognized by Ravel, who wrote to Alfred Françaix: ‘Among the child's gifts I observe above all the most fruitful an artist can possess, that of curiosity: you must not stifle these precious gifts now or ever, or risk letting this young sensibility wither.’