Chabrier, Emmanuel 01/18/1841 - 09/13/1894

Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894)started learning the piano at age six and composed some dances at age eight. He studied law in Paris, but continued to take piano lessons on the side from Edouard Wolff. He was then employed in the Ministry of the Interior in Paris, but in 1879 he abandoned his bureaucratic career to dedicate himself entirely to music. He became choral director and accompanist for Charles Lamoureaux, and subsequently choral director at the Théatre Chateau d'Eau in Paris.
His compositions include some colourful orchestral compositions such as the orchestral rhapsody "Espana," as well as the comic operas "L'Étoile" (1877)and "Une éducation manquée."



His music had a marked influence on subsequent generations of French composers including Debussy, Ravel and Poulenc. Unfortunately, the last years of his life were plagued by illness, financial problems and disappointments at the modest success of his stage works.