Jacques Ibert (1890-1962) studied music at the Paris Conservatoire from 1910 to 1914. After winning the Grand Prix de Rome in 1919 he stayed at the Villa Medici for three years, writing Escales for orchestra and Histoires for piano, works which rapidly brought him worldwide fame. With his antidogmatic personality Ibert was open to various forms of modernity, and tackled all styles with equal success, producing such major works as his Flute Concerto, the comic opera Angélique, a String Quartet, Symphonie Concertante and the choreographic epic Le Chevalier Errant. As a figurehead in French music – director of the Académie de France in Rome from 1937-1960 with a break for the war years, and administrator of the Paris Opera from 1955-1956 – Ibert was elected to the prestigious Institut de France in 1956. 
Jacques Ibert (1890-1962) studied music at the Paris Conservatoire from 1910 to 1914. After winning the Grand Prix de Rome in 1919 he stayed at the Villa Medici for three years, writing Escales for orchestra and Histoires for piano, works which rapidly brought him worldwide fame. With his antidogmatic personality Ibert was open to various forms of modernity, and tackled all styles with equal success, producing such major works as his Flute Concerto, the comic opera Angélique, a String Quartet, Symphonie Concertante and the choreographic epic Le Chevalier Errant. As a figurehead in French music – director of the Académie de France in Rome from 1937-1960 with a break for the war years, and administrator of the Paris Opera from 1955-1956 – Ibert was elected to the prestigious Institut de France in 1956.