Marie Juliette Olga Boulanger , known as Lili Boulanger (1893 – 1918), is a French composer who, despite a short existence, left many works.
Very precocious artist and composer
Marie Juliette Olga Boulanger was born on August 21, 1893 in Paris, into a family of musicians. Her mother, Raïssa Myshetskaya), is a singer from Russia and her father, Ernest Boulanger, is a composer and singing teacher. At two years old, the little girl shows signs of fragility with pneumonia; from then on, she will always be sick.
Lili and her big sister, Nadia, learned music very early on and showed great predisposition to it; Lili knows how to decipher a score before learning to read. Because of her fragile health, she received piano, harp, violin, organ and cello lessons at home. She began composing very early on, and today one of her early works remains a Valse en E major , composed at the age of thirteen.
First woman to win the Grand Prix de Rome
In 1909, Lili Boulanger entered the Paris Conservatory in a composition class. In 1912, she competed for the Grand Prix de Rome, a prize won by her father in 1835, but her health prevented her from completing the competition. The following year, she became the first woman to win the competition with her composition Faust et Hélène . His work has been very well received by the public and critics alike. On November 24, 1913, Lili Boulanger was received at the Élysée by President Raymond Poincaré.
In 1914, she left for Italy to join the winners of the Prix de Rome and composed pieces for piano, organ, oboe, violin, cello, flute and many vocal pieces on poems. When she was diagnosed with intestinal tuberculosis, she continued her creation and some of her works would be marked by her tragic fate. In 1918, when she was dying, she dictated to her sister Nadia a last work, the Pie Jesu .
Lili Boulanger died on March 15, 1918 in Yvelines, at the age of twenty-four.