DUBOIS Pierre Max (D-57)

French composer of classical music, conductor, and music educator. He was a student of Darius Milhaud, and though not widely popular, was respected. He brought the ideas of Les Six, of which his instructor was a member, into the mid-1900s. The music of Dubois is characteristically light hearted with interesting harmonic and melodic textures. He was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1955 for the cantata Le rire de Gargantua. Most of his works are for woodwinds, especially for saxophone. His Quartet for Saxophones in F premiered in 1962. Another of his works is the 'Pieces characteristiques en forme de suite', written for Alto Saxophone with piano accompaniment. In 1964 he was awarded the Grand Prix of the city of Paris for his strings ensemble piece Symphonie-sérénade. That same year he began working as a conductor; and in that capacity toured Belgium, Canada, France, and the United States. While primarily a composer of instrumental pieces, Dubois also composed music for the stage. These include the ballets Impressiones foraines (1951), Le docteur Ox (composed 1961; premiered by the Lyon Opéra Ballet in 1965), and Hommage à Hoffnung (composed 1980, premiered at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux in 1981); and the operas Comment causer (composed 1970; premiered at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in 1971), Les Suisses (composed 1972, premiered at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in 1973), and Le ruban merveilleux (composed in 1990, premiered at the Forum des Halles in Paris on 31 May 1991). Dubois was a professor of analysis at the Paris Conservatoire.