Mel
Bonis

Mélanie Hélène Bonis, known as Mel Bonis (1858-1937), was a prolific French late-Romantic composer. She wrote more than 300 pieces, including works for piano solo and four hands, organ pieces, chamber music, mélodies, choral music, a mass, and works for orchestra. She attended the Paris Conservatoire, where her teachers included César Franck, Ernest Guiraud, and Auguste Bazille. In 1905, she received an 'honourable mention' for her (now lost) Suite pour harpe chromatique et deux instruments à vent. After the First World War, her music fell into obscurity, and she became bedridden from arthritis. She continued to compose through the late 1920s, until her death in 1937, aged 79.