Lili Boulanger - Early Years

Early Years

A Parisian-born child prodigy, Boulanger's talent was apparent even at the age of two, when Gabriel Fauré (a friend of the family and later one of Boulanger's teachers) discovered she had perfect pitch. Her parents, both of whom were musicians themselves, encouraged their daughter's musical education. Her father was 77 years old when Lili was born and she became very attached to him. Her mother, Raissa Myshetskaya (Mischetzky), was a Russian princess who married her Paris Conservatoire teacher, Ernest Boulanger; grandfather Frédéric Boulanger had been a noted cellist, and grandmother Juliette a singer. Boulanger accompanied her ten-year-old sister Nadia to classes at the Paris Conservatoire before she was five, shortly thereafter sitting in on classes on music theory and studying organ with Louis Vierne; she also sang and played piano, violin, cello and harp. Amongst her teachers were Marcel Tournier and Alphonse Hasselmans.