Boulanger, Nadia, 1887-1979

French composer and music teacher.

Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) was a Parisian composer, music teacher and conductor.

French composer and composition teacher.

French teacher of composition.

French teacher, conductor, and composer.

French composer.

b Paris. Sister of Lili Boulanger.

Epithet: teacher and conductor

Biographical Note

Little is known about Mrs. Cameron (Harriet) Winslow and her relationship with Nadia Boulanger. From 1956-1964, Winslow, then a resident of Washington, DC, received a variety of programs, clippings, and photographs from Boulanger, most signed and dated with simple messages, such as, "Pour Harriet de tout coeur." These items suggest that the two may have been friends, although reference sources on Boulanger bear no mention of her relationship with Winslow.

Harrington Shortall was born to a wealthy Chicago family in 1895. He attended the Thatcher School in Ojai, California and Harvard University. Like many young American composers, Shortall studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. During World War I he served in the U.S. Navy, and afterwards began a life of music composition.

During the 1930s, Shortall’s work was included as part of the Federal Music Project Composer’s Forum, an event sponsored by the Works Progress Administration. In 1939 his "The Night is Well-Nigh Spent," was conducted by Nadia Boulanger at The Library of Congress Coolidge Theater.

Shortall was a composer for most of his adult life, although he rarely had his works published or performed after the 1940s. His work is characterized by its clarity, directness, and an embrace of pre-romantic compositional models. Simultaneously, it is music grounded in the everyday life and holiday celebrations of wealthy Chicagoans.

Shortall’s work as a music educator took two forms. He produced (although never published) a piano method book, and served as a lecturer at The Chicago Theological Seminary and Rosary College (now Dominican University) in River Forest, Illinois. Additionally, Shortall copied music from the collection of Chicago’s Newberry Library and produced his own treatises on music composition and theory.

During the 1940s, Shortall briefly taught courses at the Chicago Theological Seminary, Rosary College, and the Latin School. He died in Evanston in 1984.

Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) was a notable music teacher, conductor, and composer. Born in Paris, France, Nadia Boulanger was the oldest daughter of Ernest Boulanger, a composer and professor at the Paris Conservatory of Music, and Raïssa Myschetsky, an aspiring singer. Ms. Boulanger's musical training began at age 10 at the Paris Conservatory of Music. She excelled in harmony and composition and gained considerable public attention by the age of 17 after winning the second Grand Prix de Rome in Composition for a major work entitled Sirene. After graduating from the Paris Conservatory in 1908 she taught musical composition at various institutions, including the Conservatoire Femina-Musica, and the L'ecole Normale de la Musique.

Following the untimely death of her sister Lili Boulanger, also a gifted musician, and a brief period of mourning, Ms. Boulanger began to expand her professional activities. In 1921 she established the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau where she taught harmony, counterpoint and composition. Many of her students became highly influential in American music, including Joyce Mekeel, Virgil Thomson, Roger Sessions, Aaron Copland, and Philip Glass.

Ms. Boulanger also made several trips to the United States in this period. In 1925 she performed as an organist and in the years that followed, gave lectures and taught composition at many leading U.S. colleges and universities, including the Julliard School, Yale University, Wellesley, and Radcliffe.

By 1935, Ms. Boulanger had earned the distinction of being the first woman to conduct major symphony orchestras in Boston, Washington, D.C. and New York . She was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Maitre de Chapelle awarded by Prince Pierre of Monaco, as well as honorary doctoral degrees from Oxford and Harvard Universities. Ms. Boulanger died in Paris on October 22, 1979.

Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) was a Parisian composer, music teacher and conductor.