Nadia Boulanger, a Multitalented Woman

Few female names are highlighted in classical music, and even fewer female composers are widely recognized for their talent and impact. However, there are exceptions to this, one of whom is Nadia Boulanger, a French woman who has left a highly valuable legacy not only as a composer but as a musician and the most important composition instructor of the twentieth century.

Nadia was born in September 1887 to a French father, Ernest Boulanger—a renowned composer and singing teacher at the time—and a Russian princess, Raissa Myshetskaya. As the daughter of a successful musician, she began studying composition early, entering the Paris Conservatoire when she was 10 years old, primarily studying harmony while studying organ as a secondary focus. When she was around 20, she participated in the Prix de Rome, one of the most prestigious composition competitions in the classical world. She did not participate like the rest of the competitors, though, as she presented an instrumental fugue instead of a vocal fugue to enter the competition, causing a scandal. Still, she entered and ended up winning second place. That was one of the most groundbreaking moments that led her to international popularity and recognition.

While she was initially seen both as a composer and keyboard player, Nadia decided to focus more on composition after the death of her sister, Lili Boulanger, as well as teaching and spreading the works of her sister who was also a composer (and who Nadia thought more talented than her). This led her to teach in places like the Juilliard School; she conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra and other ensembles, too. Nadia also played a role in founding the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau in 1928. She even created a vocal ensemble, with whom she recorded several surveys of repertoire, from madrigals by Claudio Monteverdi to “Liebeslieder Waltzes” by Johannes Brahms. Nadia received honorary doctorate degrees from Harvard and Oxford, received some royal recognition titles and was part of many important music associations. She had many gifts and the world recognized her for them.

Like other composers of her time, Nadia Boulanger also wrote reviews for a local journal, Le Monde Musical. She was commissioned to review the Colonne-Lamoureux concert series. Her writing publications were more like compositional reflections rather than performance evaluations. This was also reflected in her teaching style, which Jeanice Brooks described as “formalist”: Keeping structure in mind was the most important thing to her. As a composition teacher, she had students from several countries like Brazil, Argentina, Bulgaria and the United States. Some of her pupils were Philip Glass, Virgil Thompson, Astor Piazzolla and even her own sister, Lili. 

Nadia Boulanger died in 1979, but her legacy as a composer and teacher did not end there. In 2019, Joy-Leilani Garbutt and Laura Colgate founded the Boulanger Initiative, an organization dedicated to the promotion of women composers and minorities, in honor of the Boulanger sisters. From making merchandise featuring women composers to creating a whole database of women composers, the organization has worked hard to give space for this group of composers that were usually underlooked in the past. 

Aside from that, the impact and work that both Boulanger sisters did has inspired other musicians, particularly women, to become more involved, speak for other women musicians and promote more works by female composers. For instance, Marianne Kordas, music librarian at Andrews University, specialized on women composers. At the same time, as Nadia was a promoter of contemporary music, her legacy inspires others to appreciate current composers and recent musical works, regardless of gender, race or religion of the composer. Nadia’s contributions to the academic musical world make this space feel less exclusive, and more like music itself: embracing and expressive.