Lili Boulanger

Lili Boulanger is one of music's great what-ifs, and it breaks my heart a little. In 1913 she became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome composition prize, a seismic moment, yet chronic illness took her in 1918 at just 24. What she left behind, the luminous Du fond de l'abîme and Pie Jesu, hints at a voice that could have reshaped 20th-century music. Her sister Nadia became the legendary teacher, but Lili was the once-in-a-generation composing talent. I keep coming back to artists who blazed briefly and burned that bright; her loss still feels enormous.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Lili Boulanger

Name (Japanese)

リリ・ブーランジェ

Reading

りり・ぶーらんじぇ

Born

August 21, 1893 – March 15, 1918

Origin

Paris, France

Occupation

composer

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Leo / Snake

Awards & achievements

• Prix de Rome

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lili%20Boulanger
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AA%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BB%E3%83%96%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B8%E3%82%A7
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q230412

Tags

• composer

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.