Nadia’s father was a composer and a violin professor at the Paris Conservatory. Nadia’s memory was so proficient that by the time she was 12 she had Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier memorized. She attended the Paris Conservatory along with her younger sister, Lili. The sisters shared instructors and even prizes. In 1908, Nadia received second place in the Prix de Rome for her composition La Sirene. A few years later, Lili became the first woman to win first place in that same competition. Nadia took it upon herself to oversee her sister’s education. Lili was a prolific and talented composer, by the time she was 20 she had an impressive catalogue of works. However, she suffered from chronic illness which took her life at the age of 24.
After Lili’s death Nadia all but abandoned composition. She focused on conducting. Nadia broke new ground as a conductor. In many of the orchestras she visited, she was the first female to stand on the podium. She helped rediscover the music of Claudio Monteverdi and championed works by contemporary composers, including her good friend, Igor Stravinsky. She conducted the premiere of his Dumbarton Oaks Concerto in 1938.
It is her influence as a teacher that has left the most indelible mark. Nadia Boulanger held positions at many colleges and universities in France and the United States, including the Paris Conservatory, Wellesley College and Julliard. She was in such high demand that students from around the world would come to her for instruction. Nadia encouraged her students to take in as much music as possible. She was said to have every major work by every major composer at her fingertips. Her methods were difficult. The biographer, Alan Kendell called her “The Tender Tyrant”. Yet her practice of counterpoint and score reading are still used in conservatories around the world. As one student recalled, Nadia would say “Your music can never be more or less than you are as a human being.”
Nadia continued to promote the music of her sister throughout her life. She died in 1979, at the age of 92. She’s buried next to Lili at Montmartre Cemetery in Paris.
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