Berlioz, Hector

a celebrated musical composer and critic, born near Grenoble, in the dep. of Isère, France; sent to study medicine in Paris; abandoned it for music, to which he devoted his life. His best known works are the "Symphonie Fantast i que," "Romeo and Juliet," and the "Damnation of Faust"; with the "Symphonie," which he produced while he was yet but a student at the Conservatoire in Paris, Pagan in i was so struck that he presented him with 20,000 francs (1803-1869).