Francis Chagrin

Francis Chagrin was a British composer and conductor, originally named Alexander Paucker when he was born in Bucharest, Romania to a wealthy Jewish family. His parents sent him to study for an engineering degree in Zurich, where he secretly pursued music at the Zurich Conservatory. Following graduation in 1928, he moved to Paris and changed his name to sound more French. He studied with Paul Dukas and Nadia Boulanger at the École normale before moving to England in 1936, where he continued studies with Mátyás Seiber. During World War II, he worked with the BBC French Service as a musical adviser and composer-in-chief for the radio program, Les Français parlent aux Français. In 1943, he helped to create the Committee (later Society) for the Promotion of New Music, of which Ralph Vaughan Williams and Arthur Bliss served as president and vice-president, respectively. For his wartime service, Chagrin was decorated by the French government with the Officier d'Academie. Starting in the 1950s, he began writing film scores and music for television, including an episode of Doctor Who. Chagrin also composed concert music, which included two symphonies, a piano concerto, and the Roumanian Fantasy for harmonica, which he composed for Larry Adler.