Hélène Fleury-Roy

Hélène-Gabrielle Fleury-Roy (born 21 June 1876, Carlepont – d. 18 April 1957, Saint-Gaudens, France) was a French composer and one of the first few women to win the prize for the Prix de Rome musical composition competition.

Fleury was born in 1876. She was the student of Dallier and Gedalge Widor at the Paris Conservatory. In the late eighteen nineties, Helene Fleury lived in La Ferte-sous-Jouarre (Seine-et-Marne). She sent compositions to the Journal Musical Santa Cecilia Reims Composition Competition, and won in 1899 with Symphony Allegro for organ.

Fleury-Roy was the first woman admitted in 1903 to the Prix de Rome competition for musical composition. On her first attempt at the prize, she failed the fugue test, but the next year she tried again and succeeded with the cantata Medora after Édouard Adenis for two male and one female voice. She was awarded a third prize in the Grand Prix.

Hélène Fleury-Roy became a piano teacher after marrying her husband Roy in about 1906, and resided in Paris. In 1928 she became a professor at the Conservatory of Toulouse, teaching harmony, composition and piano. Her students at the conservatory who became noted include conductor Louis Auriacombe, future founder of the Toulouse Chamber Orchestra, composer Charles Chaynes, and violinist Pierre Dukan.

Fleury-Roy's works include songs, piano, violin, cello and organ pieces and a piano quartet.