Hélène Fleury-Gabrielle-Roy (b. 1876 d. unknown) was a French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 composer and the first woman to win the prize for the Prix de Rome

Prix de Rome

The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...

 composition competition.

Background

Helene Fleury was born in 1876. She was the student of Dallier and Gedalge Widor at the Paris Conservatory. In the late eighteen nineties, Helene Fleury lived in La Ferte-sous-Jouarre (Seine-et-Marne). She sent compositions to the Journal Musical Santa Cecilia Reims

Reims

Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....

 Composition Competition, and won in 1899 with Symphony Allegro for organ.

Fleury-Roy was the first woman admitted in 1903 to the Prix de Rome

Prix de Rome

The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...

 competition for musical composition. On her first attempt at the prize, she failed the fugue

Fugue

In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....

 test, but the next year she tried again and succeeded with the cantata Medora after Édouard Adenis for two male and one female voice. She was awarded a third prize in the Grand Prix.

Hélène Fleury-Roy became a piano teacher after marrying her husband Roy in about 1906, and resided in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. In 1928 she became a professor at the Conservatory of Toulouse, teaching harmony, composition and piano. Her students at the conservatory who became noted include conductor Louis Auriacombe, future founder of the Toulouse Chamber Orchestra, composer Charles Chaynes

Charles Chaynes

- Biography :Chaynes studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Darius Milhaud and Jean Rivier. In 1951 he won the Prix de Rome with the cantata Et l'homme se vit les portes rouvrir...

, and violinist Pierre Dukan

Pierre Dukan

Pierre Dukan is a French medical doctor and nutritionist, creator of the famous Dukan Diet.-History:In 1975, Pierre Dukan was a general practitioner in Paris when he was first confronted with a case of obesity. At the time, being overweight or obese was thought to be best treated by low calorie and...

.

Works

Fleury-Roy's works include songs, piano, violin, cello and organ pieces and a piano quartet.

• Arabesque for piano
• Bourree Gavotte for piano
• Canzonetta for piano
• Espérance piano
• Fleur des champs for piano
• La Nuit for piano
• Minuetto for piano
• Valse Caprice for piano
• Coeur virginal, song
• Mattutina, song
• Brise du soir for violin
• Trois pièces faciles for violin
• Fantaisie for viola (or violin) and piano, Op. 18
• Rêverie for cello
• Quatuor for piano and strings
• Pastorale for organ
• Grand Fantaise de concert