Pierre Boulez

French composer and conductor; one of the most distinguished and influential musicians of the 20th century. His conducting career flourished first in the concert hall, then in the opera house. He was the principal spokesman for the composers of Europe in the early 1950s. His early works scorned sentiment, employing a complicated serial technique with rhythm and dynamics based on mathematical formulas. He was a rebel who brought computer terminals onto the performing stage and used them to interact with the musicians. He once said, "I have a temperament that enjoys making rules for the pleasure of breaking them."

He was musical director at the Jean-Louis Barrault Theatre Company 1946-56. He succeeded Bernstein as director of the New York Philharmonic 9/1971-77. His guest conducting engagements have taken him to the world's leading orchestras, among them the Berlin, Vienna, and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Royal Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the London and Chicago Symphonies, and the Cleveland Orchestra.

As teacher and writer, Boulez has been an intrepid spokesman for new music and a new aesthetic of music. A contributor to the "Journal Polyphonie," he also wrote important compositions.

Boulez died on 5 January 2016 in Baden-Baden, Germany. He was 90.