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History

In March 1939, Nadia Boulanger, assisted by American friends, created in Boston (Massachusetts, USA) The Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund, with two objectives: perpetuate Lili Boulanger’s music and memory and give, in her memory, a financial support to talented musicians. At the opening, a prestigious benefit-concert, conducted by Nadia Boulanger, was given at the Symphony Hall of Boston. Along with Nadia Boulanger, were part of the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund’s artistic committee: Aaron Copland, Yehudi Menuhin, Nicolas Nabokov, Igor Stravinsky and Walter Piston.

The Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund awarded composers were:

In April 1965, the Friends of Lili Boulanger Association was created in France in the same purpose: perpetuate Lili Boulanger’s memory by promoting and diffusing her work and by awarding an annual scholarship to composers or interprets gifted with extraordinary artistic qualities, without nationality discrimination and selected by a five-members jury.
The Friends of Lili Boulanger Association’s head office was located at the secretary-general’s – Marcelle Dujarric de la Rivière – private mansion, 18bis, avenue Victor Hugo in Boulogne. With Mrs Paul Valéry as a President, the first administrators were Alexandre de Manziarly, Louis Leprince-Ringuet and René Dommange as Vice-Presidents, and François Dujarric de la Rivière as treasurer. The active committee gathered Igor Markevitch, Jean Françaix, Annette Dieudonné and Marcelle Dujarric de la Rivière. Nadia Boulanger attended every meeting.

By the 18 August 1972’s decree, the organisation was recognized non-for-profit.

The Association des amis de Lili Boulanger’s scholarship winners were:

After Nadia Boulanger’s death, on the 22^nd of October 1972, un comité rassemblé autour d’Annette Dieudonné, sa légataire universelle, a établi les bases d’une fondation. Une levée de fonds a été nécessaire pour constituer la dotation initiale.

On the 26^th of May, the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Foundation was created under the sponsorship of the Fondation de France. The founding members were Annette Dieudonné, Cécile Armagnac, Doda Conrad and François Dujarric de la Rivière.

As a non-for-profit organisation and a moral and legal heir to the two sisters, the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Foundation aimed to perpetuate their memory and music and kept awarding scholarships to talented musicians, under the supervision of a committee chaired by Dominique Merlet and formed by Narcis Bonet, Bruno Gillet, François Lesure and Noël Lee.

On the occasion of Lili Boulanger’s centenary, in 1993, the Friends of Lili Boulanger Association, still existing, has been reactivated, its status reviewed, Nadia’s surname added to its title and the head office moved to the 9^th arrondissement of Paris where the two sisters spent their lives. First set up in the 9^th arrondissement hall, the head office is now, since 2005, located 3, place Lili Boulanger – former 36, rue Ballu.

The legal capacity enabled, the Friends of Nadia and Lili Boulanger Association to organise the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Voice-Piano Competition, created in 2001, at its President Michel Cosson’s instigation – then director of the Nadia and Lili Boulanger municipal conservatory (Paris 9^th arrondissement) – and on the advice of Jérôme Spycket, tenor and author of two biographies of Nadia Boulanger and Lili Boulanger.

In 2009, the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Foundation under the sponsorship of the Fondation de France has been dissolved. Her endowment has been put on the account of the non-for-profit organisation whose status have been reviewed and whose title has changed for the current one, Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Centre.