Today is the birthday of Alexandre Tansman, a famous composer.Tansman was born in Poland to a wealthy family, and, like a number of other famous composers, studied law in the University of Warsaw. He did, however, also study music at the Łódź Conservatory and when he moved to Paris he continued working on his compositions. While in Paris he studied under Igor Stravinsky and Maurice Ravel and associated himself with a group of foreign composers working in France who called themselves École de Paris.
During WW2 Tansman fled to Los Angeles, with the help of his friend Charlie Chaplin, and on his return to Paris after the war Tansman found his music outmoded. He then turned to his Jewish and Polish heritage and used this as inspiration.
In his hometown of Łódź there is a competition, entitled the Alexandre Tansman Competition for promising musicians every year to promote his music.
