French composer Darius Milhaud was born in Marseille on 4 September 1892. He grew up in Aix-en-Provence, starting violin lessons with Léo Bruguier at the age of seven. Five years later, he became a member of the string quartet of his teacher. In this setting, he became acquainted with classical and romantic repertoire, as well as with the quartets of César Franck and Debussy. Upon his arrival in Paris in 1909, his enthusiasm for contemporary music was heightened by performances he attended of the Ballets Russes and concerts organised by the Société Musicale Indépendante. While studying theory and counterpoint at the conservatoire, he became acquainted with André Gedalge, with whom he went on to study counterpoint, composition, and orchestration. Milhaud was deeply impressed with the emphasis on melodic continuity which characterised his professor’s works. During his studies, he also developed lasting friendships with fellow young composers Honegger, Ibert, Cliquet, and Wiéner. In 1914, he met Koechlin, with whom he would meet regularly to analyse contemporary works over the next several years. Milhaud avoided being drafted into the French army during the First World War due to health problems. In 1917, he travelled to Brazil to serve as the secretary of poet and dramatist Paul Claudel, who was then French ambassador to the country. The music Milhaud encountered there would leave a lasting impression.

Upon his return to Paris at the end of the war, he hosted meetings of young musicians in his flat each Saturday. Around this time, he took over a painting studio in Rue Huyghens, using the space for concerts of contemporary music which proved to be extremely popular. Following one such concert, Henri Collet published his famous article in the 16 January 1920 edition of the Comoedia Revue: “Les Cinq Russes, les Six Français et Erik Satie“ [“The Five Russians, the Six Frenchmen, and Erik Satie”]. Thus, “Les Six” was born. In the article, all of the group’s members stated what their affiliation meant in aesthetic terms. The “Group of Six” was, first and foremost, an amicable alliance, with some of the friendships among its members lasting a lifetime. However, also serving as an invaluable sounding chamber, the group played a key role in the professional development of its members. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Jean Cocteau, who refined the group’s poetic identity (as opposed to any theoretical unity), its reputation largely surpassed anything that any individual member could have achieved alone. As a result, the music of the six composers quickly gained widespread acclaim.

In the interwar years, jazz exerted a significant influence on French music, albeit remotely, with few French composers having the opportunity to travel to the United States to witness performances first hand. Thanks to a concert tour in 1922, Milhaud became one of the privileged few to discover “true” jazz, an experience which proved to be life-changing. His works from the next several years, many of which remain among his most popular, are steeped in the influence of the musics of Brazil and the United States.

The 1920s were a period of great creative activity and increasing success for Milhaud. During this time, he toured the United States (1922 and 1927) and the USSR (1926), and came to occupy a prominent place in the French musical landscape. In 1925, he married his cousin Madeleine. In the 1930s, he wrote extensively for cinema. However, during this time, the increasing severity of his rheumatism periodically left him unable to move, and ultimately (in the late 1940s) confined him permanently to a wheelchair.

Milhaud attended the premiere of Médée at the Paris Opera in May 1940. However, soon thereafter, WWII upended his life, and the German occupation of Paris forced him to flee to the United States. During this time, Henri Sauguet and Roger Désormière ensured the safekeeping of his scores at Arthur Honegger’s home, and Désormière paid the rent on his flat throughout the occupation.

Shortly after his arrival in the United States, Milhaud started teaching at Mills College in Oakland, California. He would not return to France until 1947. He divided the final years of his life between the two sides of the Atlantic. Upon his return to France, he was named Composition Professor at the Paris Conservatoire. However, he also retained his position at Mills College until 1971, and regularly taught at the Aspen Summer Academy in Colorado. Remaining active until the end of his life, he died in Geneva on 22 June, 1974, leaving behind him a corpus of 443 completed works.