Nadia
and Lili Boulanger
Nadia was born in 1887 and died in 1979. Lili was born in 1893 and died in 1918. Nadia Boulanger and her sister Lili were very great women. Their story is unique in all of music history. Lili, who suffered from poor health for almost all of her short life, mastered musical theories so swiftly that she was able to compete for and win the Prix de Rome at the age of 19. She wrote many mature pieces when she was very young and was famous for them. And even as her illness sapped her strength and caused excruciating pain, she did not slow down or give up. Her last composition, the Pie Jesu, written on her deathbed, had to be dictated to her sister Nadia because she was no longer strong enough to hold a pen. Lili died at the age of 24 from Crohn's Disease. Nadia is even better known than Lili. After a difficult start in the musical world, and having to support herself, her sister, and her mother, she went on to become one of the most famous people of the twentieth century, teaching more than two generations of musicians. As a conductor, she imrovised old or neglected music, such as that by Monteverdi; and she became the first woman to conduct, before World War II, the New York Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic of London, the Paris Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Fortunately for us, Nadia had a very long, full life -- 92 years. She was famous in her time and still remembered in ours. Both young women were truly incredible.