Born on March 7, 1875, in Ciboure, Basses-Pyrénées, Ravel studied at the Paris Conservatoire from 1899 to 1905, where his most influential teacher was the French composer Gabriel Fauré. Because of the tonal color, harmonies, mood, and extramusical associations of much of his music, Ravel is often associated with the French impressionistic composer Claude Debussy. Unlike Debussy, however, he was strongly attracted to abstract, logical musical structures. His vivid, transparent orchestral colors rank him as one of the modern masters of orchestration.

Ravel's impressionistic leanings are foremost in the piano suites Miroirs and Gaspard de la nuit, and in the Rhapsodie espagnole for orchestra written in 1908. He was gifted at evoking past eras in works such as the "Pavane pour une infante défunte", "Valses nobles et sentimentales", and "Le Tombeau de Couperin", all written for piano and later orchestrated. His classicism is also evident in the important String Quartet, the Sonatina for piano, and later chamber works such as the Sonata for Violin and Cello.

Ravel's stage works include the operas L'heure espagnole and L'enfant et les sortilèges, the celebrated orchestral Boléro, originally for solo dancer; and the impressionistic ballet Daphnis et Chloé, commissioned by the Russian impresario Sergey Diaghilev, who also staged arrangements of earlier Ravel pieces such as the suite Ma Mere l'Oye (Mother Goose). Ravel's last major work was the Piano Concerto in D, for the left hand, written in 1931 for the Viennese pianist Paul Wittgenstein (1887-1961), who had lost his right arm in World War I. Stricken with a neurological disorder in 1932, Ravel died in Paris on December 28, 1937. Interestingly, the royalties from the movie, Bolero, helped make his estate, (at nearly two million pounds), one of the wealthiest ever left by a composer. So, what happened to all that money?

Your kind contribution will help continue the best of classical music for all to enjoy.