Eugène Cools composer

Eugene Cools was a French composer. He completed his musical studies at the Conservatoire de Paris where he attended classes with Gedalge, Faure and Widor. He was then Gedalge's assistant in counterpoint and fugue classes from 1907 until 1923, he also teached harmonic analysis and musical construction at the Ecole Normale de Musique since its creation in 1919. Among his pupils between other musicians, there were the Basque composer Jose Antonio de Donostia (1886-1956) and Brazilian pianist Joao de Souza Lima (1898-1982). In 1906, with Guy Ropartz it is one of the winners of the Crescent contest for his Symphony in C minor, op. 59 (Eschig). Played January 20, 1907 at the Concerts Colonne, it was a great success, the critics pointed out "a beautiful and remarkable beginning" and "if the ideas are not always original, they are very clearly and very strongly expressed. "