It is no exaggeration, then, to consider Boulanger the most important musical pedagogue of the modern – or indeed any – era. Although her teaching base was in the family apartment at 36 Rue Ballu in the ninth arrondisement of Paris, she also taught in the US and UK, working with leading conservatoires including the Juilliard School, the Yehudi Menuhin School, the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music.

With such a contribution, she might also arguably be described as the most important woman in the history of classical music. Not that she’d appreciate attention being drawn to her gender. Being female was, for Boulanger, no apparent barrier to achievement. In addition to her remarkable teaching career, she became the first woman to conduct many of the major US and European symphony orchestras, including the BBC Symphony, Boston Symphony, Hallé Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. Boulanger was also a mentor to Igor Stravinsky and an ardent champion of his music when much of the musical world remained unconvinced of its genius. She was responsible for bringing to life a number of ground-breaking world premieres.

Hidden figure?

But be honest: have you ever heard of her? Boulanger’s name remains largely unknown outside niche classical music circles, despite the astonishing impact she had on the soundtrack to all our lives, not just in the realm of classical but in jazz, tango, funk and hip-hop. It is frankly unimaginable that a man with a similar degree of influence over 20th Century music would have been so ignored.