Paul Henri Büsser (16 January 1872 – 30 December 1973) was a French classical composer, organist, and conductorBüsser was born in Toulouse of partly German ancestry. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1889, where he studied organ with César Franck and composition with Ernest Guiraud. Employed for a while as secretary to Charles Gounod, he received valuable advice from that composer, who helped him obtain a position as organist at Saint-Cloud. In 1893, he won the Prix de Rome, and on his return from Italy he began a career as a conductor. At the personal request of Claude Debussy, Büsser led the fourth performance, and numerous subsequent performances, of Pelléas et Mélisande. He also became a protégé of Jules Massenet and was one of his closest friends during the last two decades of his life (Massenet died in 1912).

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