Gabriel Grovlez

Gabriel Marie Grovlez (4 April 1879 – 20 October 1944) was a French composer, conductor, pianist, and music critic. Early life and education Grovlez was born in Lille in 1879. His mother – the child of one of Chopin’s students – was his first piano teacher. Grovlez attended the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied with Gabriel Fauré, Louis Diémer, André Gedalge, Descombes, Kaiser and Lavignac. Career Grovlez toured Europe as an accompanist to Henri Marteau, violinist, From 1914 to 1933, he was the director of the Opéra de Paris (“Societé Nationale de l’Opéra”), He also wrote reviews for Paris music journals including Excelsior (1916–17) and L’Art musical (1937–39). Grovlez died in Paris in 1944, at the age of 65. He wrote around 50 songs, described by Graham Johnson and Richard Stokes as often having “an elegant and sometimes whimsical effect” in performance. Good examples of his vocal writing include Trois Mélodies sur des poèmes de Jacques Heugel; Paroles à l’absente, setting poems by G. Jean-Aubry (1918); and Guitares et mandolines (1913), setting a work by Camille Saint-Saëns. He also wrote music for children, including the popular L’Almanach aux images for piano. Selected