Andre caplet biography family

He was a friend of Claude Debussy and completed the orchestration of several of Debussy's compositions as well as arrangements of several of them for different instruments. He entered the Paris Conservatory in and won several prizes. While a student he supported himself first by playing in dance orchestras in the evening and then by conducting, where had immediate success.

He won the Prix de Rome in , composing in a conventional style to please the judges, while Maurice Ravel showed his contempt for the assigned text. Until the end of , Caplet lived at the French Academy in Rome with the financial support the prize provided, though he took leave for long periods to attend performances in Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg.

Early life​​ André Caplet was born in Le Havre on 23 November , the youngest of seven children born to a Norman family of modest means.

As a composer Caplet wrote many vocal works and chamber pieces, several works for orchestra and only a handful of piano pieces. Caplet served as one of the conductors of the Boston Opera Company for four seasons, from to , specializing in the French repertoire. He accepted the position to enhance his reputation as a conductor and used it to introduce contemporary French repertoire to the United States.

He was wounded in May and later promoted to sergeant. In he completed the third movement and the work premiered that same year in the small church of Ham , Picardy, accompanied by the distant sounds of artillery. They had a son in In —19, he taught conducting, harmony, and orchestration at the music school established by Walter Damrosch at the behest of U.

General John J. Pershing in Chaumont to train U. Caplet did not return to teaching and conducting at the war's end.