Culture, History, Library, Specialized
French-born conductor Pierre Monteux (1875-1964) premiered many masterworks of the last century, including Maurice Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe, Claude Debussy's Jeux, and Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and Petrushka. Monteux enjoyed a long life, spanning a remarkable period in history. Originally trained as a violist, he performed for both Edvard Grieg and Johannes Brahms as a member of the Quatuor Geloso. Over the course of his conducting career, he held directorships of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, the Metropolitan Opera, the Boston Symphony, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris (which he formed), the London Symphony, and the San Francisco Symphony, among others.