French composer Camille Saint-Saëns was BOTD in 1835. Born in Paris, he was a child prodigy, giving his first concert performance at 10 and admitted to the Paris Conservatoire at 13, distinguishing himself as a pianist, organist and composer. He taught for five years at L’École de Musique Classique et Religieuse, with students including Gabriel Fauré, before becoming a freelance performer, composer and conductor. In 1857, he was appointed organist at La Madeleine church in Paris, a position he held for 20 years, inspiring his popular Symphony No 3 for solo organ and two pianos. A prolific composer, he wrote symphonies, concertos for piano, violin and cello, a Requiem mass, the light-hearted musical suite Les Carnaval des Animaux (The Carnival of Animals) and the symphonic poem Danse macabre. His 1877 opera Samson et Dalila was originally rejected by the Opera de Paris due to French Republican prejudices against depicting Biblical characters on stage. After a successful premiere in Weimar, it opened in Paris in 1890 to great success. He befriended many of the foremost artists of his generation, forming a close friendship with Franz Liszt, and with celebrity admirers including Richard Wagner and Marcel Proust. A co-founder of the Société nationale de musique (National Society of Music), he used the organisation to promote conservative ideals of classical composition, taking swipes at modern composers including Claude Debussy, whose compositions he called “atrocities.” After decades living with his mother, the 40 year-old Saint-Saëns married 19 year-old Marie-Laure Truffot, with whom he had two children. After the deaths of both children, they separated in 1881. Saint-Saens is thought to have been attracted to young men, especially Algerians. When asked if he was homosexual, he replied “No, I am a pederast“. He died in 1921, aged 86.