Taylor Chan in a Senior Recital - 4

Also displaying precocious talent, Boulanger was discovered to have perfect pitch at age 2, and three years later, began singing Faure's songs, accompanied by the composer himself. For leisure, she learned a handful of instruments, sight-read, and improvised. At 19, she became the first female recipient of the first-prize for composition in the Prix de Rome, leading to a contract with a publisher, and assuring her a fixed yearly stipend which allowed her to compose freely. Faithful to her work, she dictated her last pieces to her sister from her deathbed when her lifelong battle with intestinal tuberculosis incapacitated her.

“There is the tale of a child who died at the age of 24, who was almost always in pain, and the tale of a genius which chose to manifest itself through this fragile and charming figure. Her music is not the lyrical and sentimental description of her short life: it utterly transcends it.”
- Camille Mauclair – 1924, concert lecture

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