20th-century French musicians

Gabriel_Faure

Gabriel Urbain Fauré (French: [ɡabʁi.ɛl yʁbɛ̃ foʁe]; 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, Sicilienne, nocturnes for piano and the songs "Après un rêve" and "Clair de lune". Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style.
Fauré was born into a cultured but not especially musical family. His talent became clear when he was a young boy. At the age of nine, he was sent to the École Niedermeyer music college in Paris, where he was trained to be a church organist and choirmaster. Among his teachers was Camille Saint-Saëns, who became a lifelong friend. After graduating from the college in 1865, Fauré earned a modest living as an organist and teacher, leaving him little time for composition. When he became successful in his middle age, holding the important posts of organist of the Église de la Madeleine and director of the Paris Conservatoire, he still lacked time for composing; he retreated to the countryside in the summer holidays to concentrate on composition. By his last years, he was recognised in France as the leading French composer of his day. An unprecedented national musical tribute was held for him in Paris in 1922, headed by the president of the French Republic. Outside France, Fauré's music took decades to become widely accepted, except in Britain, where he had many admirers during his lifetime.
Fauré's music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the modernism of the second quarter of the 20th century. When he was born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time of Fauré's death, jazz and the atonal music of the Second Viennese School were being heard. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, which describes him as the most advanced composer of his generation in France, notes that his harmonic and melodic innovations influenced the teaching of harmony for later generations. During the last twenty years of his life, he suffered from increasing deafness. In contrast with the charm of his earlier music, his works from this period are sometimes elusive and withdrawn in character, and at other times turbulent and impassioned.

DJ_Mehdi

Mehdi Favéris-Essadi (20 January 1977 – 13 September 2011), better known by his stage name DJ Mehdi, was a French hip hop and house music producer and DJ. He was signed to the label Ed Banger Records, founded by his friend Pedro Winter, in which he released in 2006 his album Lucky Boy, also the label's debut album.

Henri_Guédon

Henri Guédon (born May 22, 1944, in Fort de France in Martinique - died on February 12, 2006, in Paris, France after heart surgery) was a French percussionist from Martinique. His first band was called La Contesta and he organised it when he was 20. He was awarded a Maracas d'or the first year the awards ran. In 1983, Philippe Langlais invited him to compose a mix of classical and jazz with his orchestra, the resulting composition called Opéra Triangulaire. He was a judo champion 1963-65. Multiple albums fused Antillean rhythms with other music from around the world. Guedon was instrumental in exporting the new sound of 60s and 70s Latin -guaguanco, boogaloo, salsa, descarga - to France and the rest of Europe. When Guedon began placing his percussion instruments at the front of the stage in the style of his great influence Ray Barretto, French audience members found themselves shocked and intrigued. Soon enough, greats like El Conde and Pacheco were touring France. Were it not for Henri Guedon, Europe could have conceivably taken years to move forward from mambo and cha-cha-cha.

Professeur_Choron

Georget Bernier (French pronunciation: [ʒɔʁʒe bɛʁnje]; 21 September 1929 – 10 January 2005), more commonly known as Professeur Choron (pronounced [pʁɔfesœʁ ʃɔʁɔ̃]), was a French humorist and founder of Hara Kiri magazine.

Filip_Nikolic

Filip Nikolic (Serbian: Филип Николић, Filip Nikolić; 1 September 1974 – 16 September 2009) was a Serbian actor and singer and French citizen, best known as the lead of the French band 2Be3.
Born at Saint-Ouen, Seine-Saint-Denis, he was raised with two siblings in Longjumeau, a suburb of Paris.
Filip was a French singer, but he also featured in acting roles in a TV shows such as Navarro and Pour être libre, a series centred on 2Be3. He also appeared in the US movie Simon Sez with Dennis Rodman in 1999. He was also runner-up in the French version of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2006.