Lili Boulanger

Lili Boulanger
(b Paris, 21 Aug 1893; d Mézy, 15 March 1918). French composer. She grew up in a musical household, with both parents (Raïssa Mischetzky and Ernest Boulanger) and her sister Nadia trained or active as composers and performers.

Her immense talent was recognized at the age of two, and she received a musical education from early childhood on. In 1895 she fell ill with bronchial pneumonia, after which her immune system was severely weakened. For the rest of her life she was almost constantly ill, with either passing infections or outbreaks of the chronic condition of intestinal tuberculosis which led to her death in 1918. Her frail health conditioned her life, through the need of constant care, and her musical career, as she had to rely on private composition and instrumental tuition rather than a full musical education at the Conservatoire. In December 1909, after her sister gave up her attempts to win the Prix de Rome, she decided to compete for the prize (her father Ernest Boulanger had won it in 1835). She prepared for the competition studying privately with Georges Caussade and, from January 1912, with Paul Vidal when she entered his composition class at the Conservatoire. After an unsuccessful first attempt in the 1912 competition, she won the Prix de Rome in 1913 with the cantata Faust et Hélène. Her success made the international headlines, as she was the first woman to win the prize for music. As a result, she was able to sign a contract with Ricordi that offered her an annual income in return for the right of first refusal on publication of her compositions.