Betsy Jolas
French-American composer and teacher Betsy Jolas was born in Paris on 5 August 1926. Her family settled in the USA in 1940. She studied at Bennington College in Vermont and joined the Dessoff Choirs, resulting in her discovering Renaissance music. She continued her studies with Messiaen and Milhaud at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique in Paris from 1946. She was Messiaen's assistant (1971-74) at the Conservatoire and later taught there and also in the USA.
Her atonal output is influenced by Boulez, Renaissance music, and her desire to write beautiful, expressive works, and these, which include operas, works for large ensemble, orchestral, choral, chamber and vocal music, have been performed widely in the USA and Europe.