Lili Boulanger was a French composer of the early twentieth century, born in Paris and trained at the Conservatoire de Paris, where in 1913 she became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome for composition. Chronically ill from childhood, she composed choral and vocal works, psalm settings, symphonic poems, and cantatas in a neo-Romantic, Symbolist-influenced idiom during a career cut tragically short. She died of intestinal tuberculosis, likely complicated by Crohn’s disease, in 1918 at Mézy-sur-Seine, at the age of 24.

Despite a career of only a few years, Boulanger produced music that critics have judged mature, original, and harmonically adventurous, and she is regarded as one of the most gifted composers of her generation. Her achievement as the first woman to win the Prix de Rome opened doors for later women composers, and her legacy is honored today through the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund and initiatives such as the Boulanger Initiative, which support women in classical music.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lili_Boulanger