André Charles Prosper Messager (December 30, 1853 - February 24, 1929), French composer and musician, was born at Montluçon.
André Messager was the son of Paul-Philippe-Émile Messager (a local tax collector) and Sophie-Cornélie Lhôte de Selancy. It was not a musical household but the young boy had his first musical exposure on a piano in the house. At the age of seven he was sent as a boarder to a Marist school where he continued his interest in ...
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André Charles Prosper Messager (December 30, 1853 - February 24, 1929), French composer and musician, was born at Montluçon.
André Messager was the son of Paul-Philippe-Émile Messager (a local tax collector) and Sophie-Cornélie Lhôte de Selancy. It was not a musical household but the young boy had his first musical exposure on a piano in the house. At the age of seven he was sent as a boarder to a Marist school where he continued his interest in the piano.
A bank crash brought ruin to the family and Messager left the Marist school to become an organist. He studied at the École Niedermeyer with Eugène Gigout and Gabriel Fauré as his teachers, and was for some time a pupil of Saint-Saëns. He collaborated with Fauré on the Messe des pêcheurs de Villerville. In 1874 Messager was appointed organist at Saint-Sulpice. In 1876, he won the gold medal of the Société des Compositeurs with a symphony, and began his career composing for the stage at the Folies Bergère in the 1870s, leaving there...
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