French composer Francis Poulenc was BOTD in 1899. Born in Paris to a wealthy industrialist family, he showed an early interest in music but was discouraged from pursuing it as a profession. The deaths of his parents made him independently wealthy, allowing him time to compose music. Largely self-taught as a musician, he published his first compositions in 1917, becoming well known for his solo piano piece Mouvements perpétuels. Associated with a group of young composers known as Les Six, he was mentored by Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky and especially Jean Cocteau, whose poem Cocardes he set to music. In 1923, Sergei Diaghilev commissioned him to compose the ballet Les biches for the Ballets Russes, which became an immediate success. The death of Poulenc’s friend Pierre-Octave Ferroud in 1936 inspired him to compose a number of religious works, including the Mass in G major and Stabat Mater. His international popularity increased after the war, with successful tours in England and America. His 1957 opera Les dialogues des Carmélites, premiered at La Scala in Milan, became hugely successful, and remains part of the international opera repertory. Notable later compositions included La voix humaine, based on Cocteau’s play. Discreetly gay, Poulenc had relationships with Richard Chanlaire, Raymond Destouches and Lucien Roubert. He also had a brief affair with Fréderique Lebedeff, with whom he had a daughter. He met his final partner Louis Gautier in 1957, remaining together until his death in 1963, aged 64.