Bernard Sarrette

Bernard Sarrette (French pronunciation: [bɛʁnaʁ saʁɛt]; 27 November 1765 – April 1858), founded what would become the Conservatoire de Paris.

Sarrette was born in Bordeaux, the son of a shoemaker, and travelled to Paris as an accountant.

When the financial embarrassments of the Commune necessitated the suppression of the paid guard, Sarrette kept the musicians near him and obtained from the municipality, in June 1792, the establishment of a free school of music.

On 18 Brumaire, Year II (8 November 1794), the school was converted into the Institut National de Musique by decree of the convention, and by the law of 16 Thermidor, Year III (3 August 1795), it was finally organized under the name of Conservatoire.

[1] The protection of Napoleon I was a source of disaster to him in 1815, when the conservatoire was closed; its subsequent history was watched by its founder as a mere spectator from outside.