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Vincent d\'Indy (27 March 1851- 2 December 1931) was a French composer and teacher.
Paul Marie Theodore Vincent d\'Indy was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of royalist and Catholic persuasion. He had piano lessons from an early age from his paternal grandmother, who passed him on to Antoine Francois Marmontel and Louis Diemer. From the age of 14 he studied harmony with Albert Lavignac. At age 19, during the Franco-Prussian War, he enlisted in the National Guard, but returned to musical life as soon as the hostilities were over. The first of his works he heard performed was a Symphonie italienne, at an orchestral rehearsal under Jules Pasdeloup; the work was admired by Georges Bizet and Jules Massenet, with whom he had already become acquainted. On the advice of Henri Duparc, he became a devoted student of Cesar Franck at the Conservatoire de Paris. As a follower of Franck, d\'Indy came to admire what he considered the standards of German symphonism.
In the summer of 1873 he visited Germany, where he met Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms.On 25 January 1874 his overture Les Piccolomini was performed at a Pasdeloup concert, sandwiched between works by Bach and Beethoven.Around this time he married one of his cousins. In 1875 his symphony dedicated to Janos Hunyadi was performed. That same year he played a minor role \"the prompter\" at the premiere of Bizet\'s opera Carmen.In 1876 he was present at the first production of Richard Wagner\'s Ring Cycle at Bayreuth. This made a great impression on him and he became a fervent Wagnerite. Inspired by his own studies with Franck and dissatisfied with the standard of teaching at the Conservatoire de Paris, d\'Indy, together with Charles Bordes and Alexandre Guilmant, founded the Schola Cantorum de Paris in 1894. D\'Indy taught there and later at the Paris Conservatoire until his death.
Few of d\'Indy\'s works are performed regularly today.His musical writings include the co-written three-volume Cours de composition musicale (1903-1905), as well as studies of Franck and Beethoven.
D\'Indy died where he was born, in Paris.
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