He is a conductor, composer
and organist born in Le Treport,
France.His father was a sculptor, leader of
an amateur musical society and a church organist. He started his musical career
by playing drums in his father's musical society orchestra and later
he went to study music and organ with abbots in Rouen.He entered the Paris Conservatoire
in 1911 and won the Grand Prix de Rome for Yanitzawhich was a cantata composition.He joined the French Army at the
start of WWI and in 1914 was made a prisoner of war and interred at a camp
in Darmstadt.Here he would compose a string
quartet.He became the music
director of the Casino de Cauterets after the war
which was followed by the Lamoureux Orchestra.This, in turn, led him to being the
music director of the Monte Carlo Orchestra and the Concerts Colonne.His compositions began to gain recognition and they included
two symphonies, the ballet Adonis
trouble and Mass for the 500th
Anniversary of the Death of Joan of Arc. He went to America
and debuted in 1939 with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra.He joined the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra in 1952 and stayed with them in 1963 after having done 70
recordings over a period of 11 years.He is said to have built that orchestra into one of the "finest
French orchestras in the world".
Detroit Symphony Orchestra recordings
If I Were King (Adolphe Charles Adam)
Mercury 434 332-2 (CD - Marches and Overtures a la Francais)
