Boulanger, Lili |
| COMPOSER (FRANCE) |
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BORN 21 Aug 1893, Paris - DIED 15 Mar 1918, Mézy, Yvelines (near Paris) BIRTH NAME Boulanger, Juliette-Marie Olga CAUSE OF DEATH intestinal tuberculosis GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Cimetière de Montmartre, 20 Avenue Rachel (division 33) |
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Daughter of Ernest Boulanger, a composer and music professor who won the Prix de Rome in 1885. Her mother Raissa was a Russian princess who had been a student in Ernest's class at the Convervatoire. When she was six she attended organ classes and when she started studying composition she learned in months what had taken her also talented sister Nadia years. In 1913 Lili became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome for her cantate "Faust et Hélène". Although her health was weak and she was often ill, she installed herself at the villa Medicis. But because of the war she had to return to Nice. During the last years of her life she completed several unfinished works. When she died of intestinal tuberculosis she was only 24 years. She hadn't been able to finish her opera "La Princesse Maleine", but she left a lot of compositions for such a short life. Her sister Nadia published her work. Family • Father: Boulanger, Ernest • Sister: Boulanger, Nadia Related persons • is brother/sister of Boulanger, Nadia |
| Images |
 The grave of Lili and Nadia Boulanger at the Montmartre Cemetery, Paris. Picture by Androom (08 Mar 1995) |
Sources • Culbertson, Judi & Tom Randall, Permanent Parisians, Robson Books, London, 1991 • Cullen, Catherine, Paris, The Woman's Travel Guide, Virago Press, London, 1993 • Encyclopedie van de Muziek, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1959 • Lili Boulanger - Wikipedia (EN) • BBC - (none) - Composer of the Week - 1. Early promise |
