Ravel was born in 1875 and brought up in Paris. He began piano lessons in 1882 and studied harmony and composition in his teens. From 1889 until 1900 he studied at the Conservatoire and won first prize in the piano competition in 1891 though no further prizes followed.
More contentious was his failure, despite five attempts, to win the Prix de Rome for composition between 1900 and 1905. In the final attempt he was eliminated in the first round despite having already established himself as a composer and when it transpired that the finalists were all students of one of the jurors the director of the Conservatoire resigned!
Ravel visited Britain in 1909 and toured various countries including the United States, Canada, Spain and Morocco in the 1920s and 1930s. He died in Paris in 1937.
