Hector Berlioz

Louis Hector Berlioz (La Côte-Saint-André, 11 December 1803 – Paris, 8 March 1869) was as a French composer, music critic and conductor one of the most important and most innovative representatives of Romanticism.

Berlioz was the son of a country doctor. He received music lessons from his father in his birthplace (located between Lyon and Grenoble). At the age of twelve he had his first truly musical experience when he heard the girls' choir sing during his first communion. In the same year he fell in love with Estelle Dubœuf, a girl from the region who would later play a role in his life again.
In 1821 he was sent to Paris by his parents to study medicine. He was so impressed by opera there that he decided against his parents' wishes to become a composer. In particular, the works of Gluck were a revelation to him. Gluck would remain an idol of Berlioz throughout his life.
Berlioz took private lessons with Jean-François Lesueur. In his audacity he managed to have a self-composed mass performed, which he later tried to destroy. In 1991 the work was rediscovered on the organ gallery of the Sint-Carolus Borromeuskerk in Antwerpen. When Berlioz wanted to compete for the Prix de Rome in 1826, he did not even make it through the preliminary round.
Having grown wiser, he enrolled at the conservatory, where he studied with Lesueur and Antonin Reicha.