Camille Saint-Saëns

📍3 Rue du Jardinet, 75006 Paris, France

“I was born Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns on the 9th of October 1835 in Paris, the only child of Jacques-Joseph-Victor Saint-Saëns, who died two months after my birth, and Françoise-Clémence Collin. I was raised by my mother and great-aunt Charlotte, who gave me my first piano lessons. I was a child prodigy of unusual range — not just musical but scientific, with serious interests in astronomy, archaeology, and biology throughout my life. I made my public debut at the age of ten, offering to play any Beethoven sonata from memory as an encore. I was associated with the Paris musical world for over seventy years, composing in every form, championing French music against German dominance, and living to the age of eighty-six. The Carnival of the Animals was written as a private joke and I forbade its public performance until after my death.”

Sources: Rees, B. Camille Saint-Saëns: A Life (1999), Chatto & Windus; Harding, J. Saint-Saëns and His Circle (1965), Chapman & Hall