Nadia Boulanger: A Legacy

“I've been a woman for a little over 50 years and have gotten over my initial astonishment,” Nadia Boulanger famously responded to an interviewer who asked how it felt to be the first female conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. ”As for conducting an orchestra, that's a job where I don't think sex plays much part.”

Nadia Boulanger, the most renowned music pedagogue of the 20th century, taught generations of composers (fondly known as Mademoiselle’s “Boulangerie”) at the American Conservatory at Fountainebleu and in her Paris apartment. While it is well-known that Boulanger taught musicians such as Aaron Copland, Quincy Jones, Daniel Barenboim, Philip Glass, John Eliot Gardiner, and City Choir’s own Robert Shafer, she also left an impressive legacy of women students. Learn more about some of these talented women composers below—including one who didn’t study with Boulanger: the great teacher said: “there’s nothing more I can teach you!”—through their life stories and by listening to some of their best-known works (links to recordings are included).