BOULANGER, Nadia

  “The most influential teacher since Socrates” is how one leading contemporary composer describes Nadia Boulanger. As unlikely as it seems, this unassuming-looking lady of Romanian, Russian and French heritage, who was born in 1887 and lived to the age of 92, did indeed end up shaping the sound of the modern world.

Boulanger was the first woman to conduct many major US and European orchestras. Her roster of music students reads like the ultimate 20th Century Hall of Fame. Leonard Bernstein. Aaron Copland. Quincy Jones. Astor Piazzolla. Philip Glass. John Eliot Gardiner. Daniel Barenboim. Elliott Carter. All these musical giants, so different yet so groundbreaking in their own ways, studied with Boulanger. She gave them a rigorous grounding in academic musical analysis, yet somehow enabled each of them to find their own distinct language: perhaps the very definition of what makes a great teacher.