Gabriel Grovlez, French conductor and composer, was born in 1879 in Lille. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Lavignac, Gédalge and Fauré, and taught the piano for 10 years at the famous Schola Cantorum. From 1905 to 1908 he was choir leader and assistant conductor at the Opéra-Comique, and from 1914 to 1933 he was director of the Opéra. In addition to his official duties, he held guest conductor posts in Monte Carlo, Cairo, Lisbon, Chicago and New York, and regularly worked as a music critic. From 1939 until his death he lead a chamber music class at the Conservatoire de Paris.

Grovlez was more successful as a conductor than as a composer. He premiered works by many contemporary composers, like Fauré's Dolly Suite, Albert Roussel's Le Festin de l'Araignée and Maurice Ravel's Ma Mère l'Oye. He also revived and conducted baroque operas by Lully, Monteverdi, Gluck and Rameau. His own oeuvre, which is largely forgotten today, includes operas, ballets, symphonic poems, songs and piano music in a style close to Debussy and Fauré. Grovlez died in 1944 in Paris.


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