Émile Mathieu (composer)

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Émile Louis Victor Mathieu (18 October 1844 – 20 August 1932) was a Belgian music teacher and composer of classical music. He was born in Lille into a musical family: his father directed a theatre in Antwerp and sang, and his mother taught singing at the Académie des Beaux-Arts of Leuven. He studied at the Conservatory of Brussels and later taught piano and harmony at the Leuven Conservatory.

In 1867 Mathieu won a second prize in the Prix de Rome with a cantata about Torquato Tasso’s death. He won the first prize in 1871 and again in 1873. Between 1873 and 1875 he lived in Paris, where he conducted the orchestra of the Théâtre du Châtelet. He then returned to Brussels to work as an accompanist at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie.

He headed the Leuven Conservatory from 1881 and succeeded Adolphe Samuel as director of the Ghent Conservatory from 1898 to 1924. He was a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium. His music includes seven operas, three symphonic poems, concertos for piano and violin, a Te Deum and other choral works. Most of his operas used librettos written by himself. His best-known work today is Freyhir, an hour-long choral tone poem from 1883 about deforestation around the Ardennes, the forest he grew up near. Freyhir is the legendary name of that forest.