Jacques Ibert

Jacques Ibert was a French composer who worked in genres ranging from opera to film scores, but who remains best known for the colour, wit and grace of his lighter music. Born in Paris, he defied his family's hopes that he would pursue a career in business and entered the Paris Conservatoire, interrupting his studies to serve in the French Navy in World War One and winning the coveted Prix de Rome on his return. Ibert insisted that "all systems are valid" and gave free rein in his compositions to a classical clarity, a refined, Ravel-like sense of colour and a theatrical flair that reveals itself at its most anarchic in the uproarious Divertissement (1930) and at its most powerful in his score for Orson Welles's Macbeth (1948). But he could also work on a larger scale, such as in his lush orchestral triptych Escales (1922), the Symphonie marine (1931) and the Flute Concerto (1934) – an essential part of the 20th-century flute repertoire. Ibert's music was banned by France's wartime Vichy régime, forcing him into exile in Switzerland. Returning to France in 1944, he was honoured with senior positions at the Paris Opera and the Académie de France in Rome, which he directed until shortly before his death.