Jean Françaix was born in Mans, France in 1912. His father was the director of the city’s conservatory and his mother was a singing teacher. Françaix studied piano under Nadia Boulanger starting at the age of ten, and at eighteen, he graduated with highest honors in piano from the Conservatoire national supérieur de Paris.

He composed numerous pieces for ballet, five operas, several vocal works, and oratorios, including the L’Apocalypse selon Saint Jean, which premiered in Paris in 1942 in a performance by Charles Munch, and was performed in Berlin, London, Italy, and France. He also wrote film scores and a significant corpus of chamber music.

He received many awards and honors, including Officier de la Légion d’Honneur in 1992, Commandeur de l’Ordre du Mérite Culturel de la Principauté de Monaco in 1993, the SACEM Grand Prix de la musique symphonique, and the Prix International Arthur Honegger in 1993.