Narcisse Girard was a French conductor and composer.

Girard was born in Nantes

Nantes

Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....

. A pupil of Pierre Baillot

Pierre Baillot

Pierre Marie François de Sales Baillot was a French violinist and composer.Baillot was born in Passy and studied the violin under Giovanni Battista Viotti...

 (violin, winning first prize in 1820), and Anton Reicha

Anton Reicha

Anton Reicha was a Czech-born, later naturalized French composer. A contemporary and lifelong friend of Beethoven, Reicha is now best remembered for his substantial early contribution to the wind quintet literature and his role as a teacher – his pupils included Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz...

 (counterpoint) at the Conservatoire, after completing his studies there he went to Italy for a year to further his training. After conducting orchestras at the Hotel de Ville, Girard became the conductor of the Opéra Italien from 1830-32. He was chief conductor at the Opéra Comique

Opera Comique

The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street and Holywell Street with entrances on the East Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway...

 from 1837-46, then moving to the Paris Opéra

Paris Opera

The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...

, where he conducted the premieres of Le prophète

Le prophète

Le prophète is an opera in five acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer. The French-language libretto was by Eugène Scribe.-Performance history:...

and Sapho

Sapho (Gounod)

Sapho is a 3-act opera by Charles Gounod to a libretto by Émile Augier which was premiered by the Paris Opéra at the Salle Le Peletier on 16 April 1851. It was presented only 9 times in its initial production, but was a succès d'estime for the young composer, with the critics praising Act 3 in...

.

On 30 October 1849 Girard conducted Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

's Requiem

Requiem (Mozart)

The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...

 as part of the funeral service for Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....

.

From 18 October 1848 to 17 January 1860 Girard was the conductor of the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire

Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire

The Orchestre de la Société des concerts du Conservatoire was a symphony orchestra established in Paris in 1828. It gave its first concert on 9 March 1828 with music by Beethoven, Rossini, Meifreid, Rode and Cherubini....

, leading them in over 100 concerts. Girard conducted the first performance of Harold en Italie by Hector Berlioz

Hector Berlioz

Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...

 at the Salle du Conservatoire on 23 November 1834, with Chrétien Urhan

Chrétien Urhan

Chrétien Urhan was a violinist, organist, composer and player of the viola and the viola d'amore.- Career outline :His father first introduced him to the violin...

 (viola).

Girard was a professor of violin at the Paris Conservatoire where his pupils included Jules Danbé

Jules Danbé

Jules Danbé was a French conductor, mainly of opera, born in Caen on 16 November 1840, and died 30 October 1905. Trained as a violinist, he was a pupil of Girard and Savard, in 1859 winning a first prize for violin...

, Charles Lamoureux

Charles Lamoureux

Charles Lamoureux was a French conductor and violinist.He was born in Bordeaux, where his father owned a café. He studied the violin with Narcisse Girard at the Paris Conservatoire, taking a premier prix in 1854. He was subsequently engaged as a violinist at the Opéra and later joined the Société...

 and Édouard Colonne

Édouard Colonne

Édouard Juda Colonne was a French conductor and violinist, who was a champion of the music of Berlioz and other eminent 19th-century composers.-Life and career:...

.

His compositions included an overture Antigone, and short stage works Les deux voleurs and Les dix.

Having already been taken ill during a Conservatoire concert, Girard collapsed while conducting, towards the end of the third act of Les Huguenots

Les Huguenots

Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The opera is in five acts and premiered in Paris in 1836. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps....

at the Opéra. He is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery

Père Lachaise Cemetery

Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris, France , though there are larger cemeteries in the city's suburbs.Père Lachaise is in the 20th arrondissement, and is reputed to be the world's most-visited cemetery, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the...

.