Joséphine Boulay
{{Short description|French organist, composer and professor}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Joséphine Pauline Boulay
| image = Joséphine Boulay.jpg
| caption =
| othername =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 22 May 1869
| birth_place = Paris, France
| death_date = 5 August 1925
| death_place = Paris, France
| burial_place =
| nationality = French
| alma_mater =
| occupation = Organist, composer and professor
| years_active =
| known_for =
| spouse =
| children =
| mother =
| father =
}}
Joséphine Pauline Boulay (22 May 1869 – 5 August 1925) was a French organist, composer and professor.
Career
Born in Paris, she became blind at age three. She began her studies with the Blind Sisters of St. Paul and then with the National Institution for the Blind. She was admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris in 1887 and studied with César Franck and Jules Massenet.{{cite book |title="Une femme d'exception dans l'ombre de l'Institution Nationale des Jeunes Aveugles : Joséphine Boulay (1869-1925)", L'orgue, n° 255, III-2001, p. 7–20|first=Sébastien|last=Durand|year=2001}} In 1888, she became the first blind woman to win a first prize in organ at the Conservatoire.{{cite book |title="Joséphine Boulay (1869-1925) in Compositrices françaises au XXe siècle vol. 2", Sampzon, Delatour|first=Sébastien|last=Durand|year=2014}}
Appointed a professor at the National Institution for the Blind, she took charge of the organ and composition classes there while continuing her musical apprenticeship at the Conservatoire. There, she went on to win a second prize for harmony in the class of Charles Lenepveu in 1890, a second prize for counterpoint and fugue in 1895 in the class of Jules Massenet, and finally a first prize in 1897 in the composition class of Gabriel Fauré.{{cite book |title=Louis Vierne: organist of Notre-Dame Cathedral|first=Rollin|last=Smith|first2=Louis|last2=Vierne|year=1999}}
For thirty-seven years she taught piano, organ, composition and harmony for young blind students at the institute.{{cite book |title=The American organist: Volume 24|publisher=American Guild of Organists, Royal Canadian College of Organists, Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America|year=1990}} She was decorated with the Palmes académiques in 1899 for her work.New and Renseignments. In: Le Valentin Haüy. No. 3, March 1, 1899, p. 28. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9751699d/f12.item. She died in Paris at 56 years of age.{{cite book |title=Playing the organ works of César Franck|author=Smith, Rollin |year=1997}}
Works
Selected works include:{{Cite web |title=Joséphine Boulay (1869-1925) |url=https://data.bnf.fr/16320715/josephine_boulay/ |access-date=2024-01-17 |website=data.bnf.fr |language=fr}}
- Petit Carillon
- Andante in E
- 1896
- Chant de paix
- 1898
- Trois Pièces pour Orgue
- Prelude
- Andante
- Fugue
- 1900
- Six Motets à la Sainte Vierge et au Saint Sacrement for voice and organ or harmonium
- Regina coeli
- 1902
- Suite for violin and piano
References
{{reflist}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boulay, Josephine}}
Category:19th-century French classical composers
Category:19th-century French women composers
Category:20th-century French classical composers
Category:20th-century French women composers
Category:Conservatoire de Paris alumni
Category:French classical organists
Category:French women classical composers
Category:French piano educators
Category:French women music educators
Category:French women organists
Category:Blind scholars and academics