Claude Debussy

(Achille) Claude Debussy, Born to a family of modest means and little cultural involvement, Debussy showed enough musical talent to be admitted at age ten to France's leading music college, the Conservatoire de Paris. He originally studied piano but found his vocation in innovative composition. He took many years to develop his mature style and was nearly 40 when he achieved international fame in 1902 with the opera Pelléas et Mélisande.