Biography (read more)
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) was a French composer, pianist and organist born in Paris. Fatherless from the age of three months, he was raised by his mother and great-aunt, who introduced him to the piano; he proved a child prodigy, giving his first public recital in 1846. Saint-Saëns became a towering figure of French musical life, working as a church organist, teaching at the École Niedermeyer (where Fauré was among his pupils), and composing prolifically across nearly every genre — operas, symphonies, concertos, oratorios, and chamber music — amounting to over 300 works. He died in Algiers in 1921 and was given a state funeral in Paris.
Saint-Saëns pioneered the symphonic poem in France and is best remembered for his opera “Samson et Dalila,” the “Organ” Symphony No. 3, and the popular orchestral suite “The Carnival of the Animals.” His “Danse Macabre,” a symphonic poem depicting a spectral dance of skeletons on Halloween night, is among his most enduringly popular works and has inspired numerous transcriptions for solo and ensemble instruments, including virtuosic guitar arrangements.
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