Eugène Bozza

Eugène Joseph Bozza (4 April 1905 in Nice – 28 September 1991 in Valenciennes) was a French contemporary composer and violinist. He remains one of the most prolific composers of chamber music for wind instruments. Bozza’s large ensemble work includes five symphonies, operas, ballets, large choral work, wind band music, concertos, and much work for large brass or woodwind ensembles. His larger works are rarely performed outside his native France.

Bozza was born in 1905 to an Italian musician and a French woman in the coastal town of Nice, France. His father, Umberto Bozza, was a violinist who made his living playing in French casinos along the Mediterranean coast. His mother, Honoré Molina, was only a young girl from Nice when she met Umberto and conceived Eugène. With a professional musician for a father, Bozza was exposed to great music right away and took a liking to it. Eugène began studying the violin with his father when he was only 5 years old. Under such expert tutelage, Bozza flowered into an outstanding young violinist and would occasionally go with his father to performances and play with the orchestra. In 1915, at the age of 10, Bozza and his father moved to Italy to avoid the turmoil of World War I.

After moving to Italy with his Father in 1915, Bozza studied violin, piano, and solfège in Rome at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He graduated in 1919 with a Professor of Violin diploma. Bozza then returned to France and enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire in 1922 where he studied violin with Edouard Nadaud. After 2 years of work he earned the Conservatorie's Premier Prix for violin and secured the chair of concert master at L'orchestre Pasdeloup in 1925. He married Juliette Arnaud, his first wife, in 1924 and had a son, Pierre, in 1925. After 5 years of touring Europe with the orchestra, Bozza resigned and returned to the Conservatoire to study conducting with Henri Rabaud. His wife once confided that, "In fact, he was haunted by stage fright." Continuing his pattern of excellence, Bozza ended his study of conducting in 1931 by winning another Premier Prix, this time for conducting. Bozza was hired as the conductor for the Ballets Russes of Monte Carlo where he stayed for only a year before returning the Paris Conservatoire for a third and final time in 1932 to study musical composition. Following another two-year study with Henri Büsser, Bozza again won the Premier Prix for his area.