French composer, violinist, opera director and music teacher (1734-1829). From 1762 he worked for the Princes of Condé and Conti. In 1769 he founded the Concert des Amateurs which he ran until 1773, then directed the Concert Spirituel. In 1780 he was appointed Assistant Director of the Paris Opéra. He left it in 1784 to direct the recently established École Royale de Chant, to become the French national conservatoire in 1795. Gossec rose to fame, his corpus including opera, chamber music, symphonies and religious music. He gave France a fresh, independent vision of the orchestra, paving the way to Romanticism.
