Origins & Early Life

Darius Milhaud (French: [daʁjys mijo]; Provençal: [miˈjawt]; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and Brazilian music and make extensive use of polytonality. Milhaud is considered one of the key modernist composers.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

He taught many future jazz and classical composers, including Burt Bacharach, Dave Brubeck, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, György Kurtág, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis among others. Milhaud was born in Marseille, the son of Sophie (Allatini) and Gad Gabriel Milhaud. He grew up in Aix-en-Provence, which he regarded as his true ancestral city. His was a long-established Jewish family of the Comtat Venaissin—a secluded region of Provence—with roots traceable there at least to the 15th century. On his father's side, Milhaud's Jewish lineage was thus neither Ashkenazi nor Sephardi, but specifically Provençal—dating to Jewish settlement in that part of France as early as the first centuries of the Common Era.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

Milhaud's mother was partly Sephardi on her father's side...

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