Olivier Messiaen

Entering the Paris Conservatoire at age eleven, Messiaen served as titular organist at La Trinité from 1931 until his death. Drafted as a medical orderly in 1939, he was captured by the Germans and imprisoned at Stalag VIII-A in Görlitz, Poland.

In the freezing camp barracks, with a cellist, violinist, clarinetist, and himself on a broken upright piano, he premiered his sublime Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) on January 15, 1941, before 400 prisoners. His monumental Turangalîla-Symphonie (1948) and Catalogue d'oiseaux synthesized Hindu rhythms, Catholic mysticism, and birdsong; his pupils included Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen.