Gabriel Pierné

Henri Constant Gabriel Pierné.

Henri Constant Gabriel Pierné (16 August 1863–17 July 1937) was a French composer, conductor, and organist.

Personal Life

Gabriel Pierné was born in Metz in 1863. His family moved to Paris to get away from the Franco-Prussian War. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire. Pierné got first prizes for solfège, piano, organ, counterpoint, and fugue. He won the French Prix de Rome in 1882, with his work Edith. His teachers were Antoine François Marmontel, Albert Lavignac, Émile Durand, César Franck (for the organ) and Jules Massenet (for composition).

He succeeded Franck as organist at Saint Clotilde Basilica in Paris from 1890 to 1898. Pierné himself was succeeded by another Franck student. His name was Charles Tournemire. Associated for many years with Édouard Colonne's concert series, the Concerts Colonne, from 1903, Pierné became head conductor of this series in 1910.

His most famous early performance was the world start of Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird, at the Ballets Russes, Paris, on 25 June 1910. He remained in the post until 1933.

He died in Ploujean, Finistère, in 1937.