Nadia Boulanger

Born into a musical family on 16 September 1887 - her father Ernest and sister Lili both acclaimed composers - Juliette Nadia Boulanger entered the Conservatoire de Paris young but soon believed she lacked real compositional talent. She abandoned writing and turned to teaching instead, a choice that redirected the course of twentieth-century music. Working mainly from her family flat in Paris, she taught for seventy years until her death at 92, drawing students from across the world: Grażyna Bacewicz, Daniel Barenboim, Elliott Carter, Dinu Lipatti, Astor Piazzolla, and hundreds more. She also broke ground as the first woman to conduct major orchestras including the BBC Symphony, Boston Symphony, and Philadelphia Orchestra, leading premieres of works by Copland and Stravinsky. She died 22 October 1979, having spent a lifetime convinced she couldn't compose but certain she could teach others how.