Lucien Cailliet

Lucien Cailliet (May 22, 1891 – January 3, 1985) was a French-American composer, conductor, arranger and clarinetist. Cailliet was born in 1891 at Dampierre-sur-Moivre, in northern France.He studied at several French music conservatories, most notably the Conservatory in Dijon, where he graduated at age 22. He also received a degree from the National Conservatory in Paris. He became a bandmaster in the French Army and, in 1915, toured the United States with the French Army Band, including performances at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition.

In 1919 or 1920, Cailliet emigrated to the US and joined the Philadelphia Orchestra, as a clarinetist, saxophonist, and staff arranger, where he worked closely with Leopold Stokowski. Around this time he also founded the Cherry Hill Wind Symphony, which would later become the Wind Symphony of Southern New Jersey. In 1923, at age 32, he became an American citizen, and attended graduate school at the Philadelphia Musical Academy.

Cailliet served as Associate Conductor of The Allentown Band (Pennsylvania) beginning in 1934,

during which time he conducted many of his own arrangements. After receiving his Doctor of Music Degree in 1937, he moved to California to teach at the University of Southern California. After seven years there, he decided to devote his time to guest conducting and composing film scores. In the 1950s, he lived in Kenosha, Wisconsin where he worked for the musical instrument producer G. Leblanc Company and conducted the Kenosha Symphony Orchestra.Lucien Cailliet died at Woodland Hills in 1985, at age 93.