Jacques Ibert

Jacques Ibert belonged to no school. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire in the years before the First World War, accompanied singers and played for silent films, lost four years to the war, and won the Prix de Rome at his first attempt in 1919. His works include Escales, the orchestral triptych of Mediterranean ports, the Flute Concerto, the Concertino da camera for saxophone and the Divertissement, drawn from theatre music. Operas, ballets, incidental scores and film music followed, spanning comic and lyrical subjects. From 1937 he directed the French Academy in Rome, and near the end of his life he took charge of the Paris Opera and the Opéra-Comique. He was born in Paris on 15 August 1890 and studied at the Conservatoire with Paul Vidal, André Gedalge and Émile Pessard. He was the first musician to head the French Academy in Rome, where he held office until 1960, with an interruption during the Second World War.