Nadia Boulanger
Composer
Successful musical educator who had a profound impact on many of the 20th century's most notable composers and musicians.
She was initially repulsed by music as a young child and tired of hearing it in her home all of the time. Her attitude, however, changed when she was five and heard a fire bell, which prompted her to try to reproduce the sound on the piano.
She taught Philip Glass, Quincy Jones, John Eliot Gardiner, Aaron Copland, and many other future legends.
Her father, Ernest Boulanger, was a composer and pianist, and her mother, Raissa Myshetskaya, was a Russian princess.
She became the first woman to conduct major American and European orchestras, premiering new works by Copland and Igor Stravinsky.