Top 20 Composer celebrities in France
Here is the latest list of the world's top 20 Composer celebrities [Updated March 27, 2023].
Lorin Maazel was born
on March 6, 1930
in Nanterre, France.
He made an all-African-American recording of George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess," the first of its kind, while he was music director of the Cleveland Orchestra.
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Salary 2020: $3.3 Million
Jean Michel Jarre was born
on August 24, 1948
in Lyon, France.
His album sales exceeded 80,000,000 as of 2004. He was also the first artist selected to perform in the People's Republic of China, an incredible honor.
Georges Delerue was born
on March 12, 1925
in France.
He won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for the film "A Little Romance" from 1980. He also won a Gemini Award for "Sword of Gideon" from 1987.
Claude Debussy was born
on August 22, 1862
in France.
His birthday was honored by Google on August 22, 2013, with a Google Doodle that played "Claire de Lune's" first half.
Maurice Ravel was born
on March 7, 1875
in Ciboure, France.
He hated "Boléro," his most famous work, and considered it "a piece for orchestra without music" and trivial in the extreme. His music--especially "Jeux d'eau," --demanded virtuosity in skills from those who sought to master it.
Nadia Boulanger was born
on September 16, 1887
in Paris, France.
Olivier Messiaen was born
on December 10, 1908
in Avignon, France.
He was influenced by many aspects of his life, including his Roman Catholic faith, Japanese music, the Bryce Canyon landscape in Utah, and the life and work of St. Francis of Assisi.
Yann Tiersen was born
on June 23, 1970
in Brest, France.
He won a Cesar Award for Best Music Written for a Film for his work on "Amelie" in 2001.
Henri Dutilleux was born
on January 22, 1916
in France.
He was the recipient of many of classical music's most prestigious awards, including the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2008.
Paul Mauriat was born
on March 4, 1925
in France.
He has had an extremely prolific career, producing more than 1,000 recordings and selling more than 40 million albums worldwide.
Alexandre Desplat was born
on August 23, 1961
in Paris, France.
He won his first BAFTA Film Best Music Award for "The King's Speech" in 2011.
Leo Arnaud was born
on July 24, 1904
in France.
He worked for MGM as a film composer from 1936 until 1966. He was the arranger for "Blondie Goes Latin" in 1941 and the orchestrator for "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" in 1954 and "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" in 1964.
Jacques Ibert was born
on August 15, 1890
in Paris, France.
He fled to Switzerland after being proscribed by the pro-Nazi government of Paris. He finished out his life as administrator of the Réunion des Théâtres Lyriques Nationaux, which placed him in charge of the Paris Opera and the Opéra-Comique.
Henri Bertini was born
on October 28, 1798
in France.
He wrote 20 books containing roughly 500 studies and also published "Le Rudiment du pianiste," a book on piano method.
Hector Berlioz was born
on December 11, 1803
in France.
He was also a well-known writer and music critic who wrote for publications like Debats.
Georges Bizet was born
on October 25, 1838
in Paris, France.
He died of a heart attack not long before "Carmen" became a success.
Gabriel Yared was born
on October 7, 1949
in France.
His score for the 2004 film 'Troy' was discarded in favor of a score written by James Horner.
Francis Poulenc was born
on January 7, 1899
in France.
Versatile composer whose works included art song, solo piano, chamber, oratorio, choral, opera, ballet, and orchestral. He wrote "Le bestiaire, ou Le cortège d'Orphée" in 1917 as a cycle of melodies based on poems by Guillaume Apollinaire.
He became a member of Les Six, a club comprised of young French and French-Swiss composers.
Eugene Ketterer was born
on July 7, 1831
in France.
He was a fixture on the concert circuit, garnering acclaim for his drawing-room and fantasy pieces.
Edouard Lalo was born
on January 27, 1823
in France.
The starship U.S.S. Lalo on Star Trek: The Next Generation was named in his honor.
