Darius Milhaud

Composer, conductor, teacher and globetrotter, Darius Milhaud was born in Marseilles but considered himself a son of Aix-en-Provence. He trained at the Paris Conservatoire and from 1911 to 1972 he worked unceasingly: his 441 published works include 15 operas, 16 ballets and 12 symphonies. After a brief stint as a diplomat in Brazil, he dived into the vibrant modernist scene in 1920s Paris, and (with Durey, Tailleferre, Poulenc, Honegger and Auric) was one of the group of cutting-edge young composers dubbed Les Six by the French press. His jazz-influenced ballets Le Bœuf sur le toit (1920) and La création du monde (1923) continue to define that era in the modern concert hall, but he wrote fluently and prolifically in genres as diverse as opera and the film score (he composed more than 30 between 1915 and 1968), as well as six concise chamber symphonies and 18 string quartets. Milhaud's Jewish heritage meant that in 1940 he had to leave France for the USA. He continued to teach in both France and America until the end of his long (and as he described it, happy) life: his students included Philip Glass, György Kurtág, Burt Bacharach and Dave Brubeck.