Hector Berlioz

Louis-Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, conductor and critic who lived from 1803 to 1869. His output includes orchestral works such as the Symphonie fantastique and Harold in Italy, choral pieces including the Requiem and L'Enfance du Christ, and three operas: Benvenuto Cellini, Les Troyens and Béatrice et Benedict. The elder son of a provincial physician, he defied his family's wishes that he study medicine in order to take up music as a profession, and his independence of mind put him at odds with the conservative musical establishment of Paris. Meeting only occasional success in France as a composer, he increasingly turned to conducting, gaining an international reputation and high regard in Germany, Britain and Russia both as a composer and as a conductor.