Erik Satie
Composer
An important figure in Parisian avant-garde. He pioneered minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd.
He attended the Paris Conservatoire in 1879, but was looked down upon by the teachers because they thought he was lazy, worthless, and unmotivated.
He described himself as a gymnopedist and a phonometrician, the latter in lieu of being called a musician.
He was born to Alfred Satie and Jane Leslie, both Scottish. They moved to Paris when he was four.
He became friends with Claude Debussy in the late 1880s.