Messiaen dramatically transformed the organ’s stuffy reputation with music that is by turns wild and eerily atmospheric. Ultimately, he transferred his organ loft discoveries to landmark works for piano, for chamber ensembles and for orchestra, establishing himself as the leading French modernist of his generation. Born in Avignon in 1908, Messiaen developed twin obsessions with exotic harmonies and birdsong that were encouraged by his composition teacher at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paul Dukas. Messiaen was organist at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Paris from 1931 until his death in 1992. His music assimilates modes well outside Western tradition, some discovered in traditional music of the Andes, Bali, India and Japan, some of his own invention. His most celebrated work is Quartet for the End of Time (1941), its instrumentation of piano, clarinet, violin and cello determined by what was available in the German prisoner-of-war (POW) camp where he was interned early in World War II. Though much of Quartet was refashioned from earlier organ works, such was its unearthly, numinous quality that it held its POW audience rapt; it may even have secured Messiaen leave to return to Paris well before the end of the war. His other major works include the piano cycle Vingt Regards sur l’enfant-Jésus (1944), the ecstatic Turangalîla-Symphonie (1948) for orchestra and ondes Martenot, and the spectacular orchestral work Des canyons aux étoiles... (1974). His pupils included such leading modernists as Boulez and Stockhausen.