Jean Françaix | tl

Jean René Désiré Françaix (23 May 1912–25 September 1997) was a French neoclassical composer, pianist, and orchestrator, known for his prolific output and vibrant style.

Françaix's natural gifts were encouraged from an early age by his family: his father a musicologist, composer, and pianist, and his mother, a teacher of singing. He was only six when he took up composing, and his first publication, in 1922, caught the attention of a composer working for the publishing house who steered the gifted boy toward a gifted teacher, Nadia Boulanger. She encouraged Françaix's career, considering the young composer to one of the best, if not the best, of her students. Françaix himself often played his own works, to public acclaim; notably in the premier of his Concertino for Piano and Orchestra at the festival of Baden-Baden in 1932.

He was an accomplished pianist from an early age, earning a First Prize in Piano at the Paris Conservatory (his only formal musical qualification) and was sought after for accompanying as well as solo performances. He performed notably in a duo with the French Cellist Maurice Gendron, and also performed the Francis Poulenc Two Piano Concerto with Poulenc for several engagements when Jacques Fevrier was not available. His own Second Piano Concerto was written however for his daughters, both of whom were budding young pianists at the time of the composition.

Jean Françaix's primary occupation was his extraordinarily active compositional career. He remained prolific throughout his life; even in 1981 he described himself as "constantly composing", barely finishing one piece before beginning another, and continued thus until his death in 1997. .