Maurice Ravel Artistfacts

March 7, 1875
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was born to a music-loving family in Ciboure, France, to a Basque mother and a Swiss engineer father.
He moved to Paris with his family as an infant. It soon became clear that Maurice was musically gifted, so his father arranged for him to have piano lessons with a well-known teacher. In 1889, aged just 14, he entered France's most important musical college, the Paris Conservatoire.
Ravel left the Conservatoire in 1895, but went back in 1897 to study composition with Gabriel Fauré and counterpoint and orchestration with Andreé Gédalge. However, Ravel never got a prize for composition, so he left Fauré's class in 1903.
His impressionist style was not well regarded by its conservative establishment. Ravel failed three times to win the coveted Prix de Rome in the early 1900s, as the judges liked traditional music and did not understand his style. The composer's supporters sent letters of protest that resulted in the resignation of the director of the Conservatoire and his replacement by Faure.
Ravel lived a quiet, reclusive life focused on writing music. He dressed like a dandy and was meticulous about his appearance and demeanor, but little else is known about his private life.
He was a contemporary - and rival - of fellow composer Claude Debussy. After the death of Debussy in 1918, Ravel was generally seen worldwide as the leading French composer of the era.
Ravel developed muscle problems and aphasia in the late 1920s. Unsuccessful brain surgery led to his death in Paris on December 28, 1937.

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