Active Years: 1823-1869 (Born 1803)

Position: French composer, conductor, and critic

Career Highlights: The Damnation of Faust, Symphonie Fantastique, L’Enfance du Christ.

Career Totals: Berlioz’s major works include eight orchestral pieces, four operas, ten choral pieces, nine works for solo voice and orchestra, and over thirty songs.

Scouting Report: Berlioz had two specialties: dramatic subjects and inventive orchestration. His orchestral pieces are all “program music”: they are all pieces in which the music depicts a dramatic, highly emotional story or event. The Symphonie Fantastique is one of the most elaborate courtship ploys in history. Berlioz fell in love with an English actress he had seen on the stage and created a “symphony” which tells the story of an artist’s doomed love. Oddly enough, the young fan eventually married the star who had caught his fancy. (The marriage was not a success). Berlioz’s love of grandeur can sometimes reach comic proportions, but he can also surprise you with airy, moving orchestral effects, such as the last moments of The Damnation of Faust and The Infancy of Christ.

Teammates and Contemporaries: Berlioz was a friend of Liszt and Wagner. His contemporaries included Schumann and Verdi.

Fun Fact: Berlioz’s Requiem (Grande messe de morts) requires over 200 voices and an orchestra that includes 110 violins, a reinforced brass section, and 16 timpani.