Hélène Fleury circa 1904 (photo by Eugène Pirou).

Hélène-Gabrielle Fleury-Roy (21 June 1876 – 18 April 1957) was a French composer and the first woman to gain a prize at the prestigious Prix de Rome for composition.[1]

Background

Fleury was born in Carlepont, Department Oise, France. She studied with Henri Dallier, Charles-Marie Widor, and André Gedalge at the Paris Conservatory. In the late 1890s, she lived in La Ferte-sous-Jouarre (Seine-et-Marne). She sent compositions to the Journal Musical Santa Cecilia Reims Composition Competition, and won in 1899 with Symphony Allegro for organ.

Fleury-Roy was the first woman admitted in 1903 to the Prix de Rome competition. On her first attempt at the prize, she failed the fugue test, but the next year she tried again and succeeded with the cantata Medora (libretto: Édouard Adenis) for two male and one female voice. She was awarded a third prize in the Grand Prix.[2]

Hélène Fleury-Roy became a piano teacher after marrying her husband Louis Roy, a professor of mechanics at the university of Toulouse, in about 1906, and resided in Paris. In 1928, she became a professor at the Conservatory of Toulouse, teaching harmony, composition and piano. Her notable students at the conservatory included the conductor Louis Auriacombe (the future founder of the Toulouse Chamber Orchestra), composer Charles Chaynes, and violinist Pierre Dukan.[2]

She died in Saint-Gaudens, Haute-Garonne aged 80.

Selected works

Fleury-Roy's works include songs, piano, violin, cello and organ pieces and a piano quartet.

  • Arabesque for piano
  • Bourree Gavotte for piano
  • Canzonetta for piano
  • Espérance piano
  • Fleur des champs for piano
  • La Nuit for piano
  • Minuetto for piano
  • Valse Caprice for piano
  • Coeur virginal, song
  • Mattutina, song
  • Brise du soir for violin
  • Trois pièces faciles for violin
  • Fantaisie for viola (or violin) and piano, Op. 18
  • Rêverie for cello
  • Quatuor for piano and strings
  • Pastorale for organ
  • Grand Fantaise de concert

References

  1. ↑ Smith, Rollin; Vierne, Louis (1999). Louis Vierne: organist of Notre-Dame Cathedral. Pendragon Press. ISBN 9781576470046. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
  2. 1 2 "Rome Prize 1900-1909". Retrieved 20 September 2010.
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