Metz

Henri Constant Gabriel Pierné was a French composer, conductor, and organist. Gabriel Pierné was born in Metz in 1863. His family moved to... Paris to escape the Franco-Prussian War. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, gaining first prizes for solfège, piano, organ, counterpoint and fugue. He won the French Prix de Rome in 1882, with his cantata Edith. His teachers included Antoine François Marmontel, Albert Lavignac, Émile Durand, César Franck and Jules Massenet . He succeeded César Franck as organist at Saint Clotilde Basilica in Paris from 1890 to 1898. He himself was succeeded by another distinguished Franck pupil, Charles Tournemire. Associated for many years with Édouard Colonne's concert series, the Concerts Colonne, from 1903, Pierné became chief conductor of this series in 1910. His most notable early performance was the world premiere of Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird, at the Ballets Russes, Paris, on 25 June 1910. He remained in the post until 1933 . He died in Ploujean, Finistère, in 1937.
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Mike MacDonald is a Canadian stand-up comedian and actor. He has written and/or starred in many movies, including Mr. Nice Guy. In addition to his... successful and well received live performances all over North America, MacDonald has appeared in such TV shows as The Late Show with David Letterman and The Arsenio Hall Show. As the son of a career Canadian Air Force officer, MacDonald spent the first 15 years of his life on military bases throughout France, West Germany and Canada He was born in Metz, France. He learned at an early age that humor would make him popular. When his father retired from the military, his family settled in Ottawa, where Mike attended Brookfield High School. After high school, MacDonald, who was an accomplished drummer, toured Canada with a rock group sponsored by the Canadian government. The tour ended and he returned to Ottawa. MacDonald spent the next few years in various jobs including drive-in restaurant employee, ballroom dance instructor, and teacher's aide for mentally handicapped children. Finally, in 1978 at the age of 23, MacDonald began to frequent clubs where he could try his own kind of stand-up comedy.
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Régis Wargnier is a French film director, film producer, screenwriter and film score composer.

Eliska Cross is an actress.