Françaix, Jean

▪ French composer and musician

in full  Jean-René-Désiré Françaix 

born May 23, 1912, Le Mans, France

died September 25, 1997, Paris

      French composer and pianist whose music in a light neoclassical style displays the wit and clarity of the traditional Gallic spirit.

      The son of the director of the Le Mans Conservatory, Françaix began to compose very early, publishing a piano composition at age nine. He later studied at the Paris Conservatory and became a pupil of Nadia Boulanger (Boulanger, Nadia). One of his first important works, the Piano Concertino (1932), a characteristically witty piece, shows the complete mastery of form that distinguishes all of his music. In addition to concerti for the piano and the violin and a double piano concerto, he wrote ballets, chamber music, operas, and the oratorio L'Apocalypse de St. Jean (1939).

      A brilliant pianist, Françaix toured throughout Europe and the United States.

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