An important and influential French composer, pianist and teacher, Paul Dukas studied at the Paris Conservatoire. Dukas was twice the recipient of the prestigious Prix de Rome: in 1886 for a counterpoint and fugue, and in 1888 for his cantata, Velleda. Dukas assumed a very prominent position as the music critic for 2 important papers, Revue Hebdomadaire and Gazette des Beaux-Arts, at the same time working as a professor of the Conservatoire. Dukas was very highly acclaimed and respected as a teacher. Dukas’s most famous composition, L'Apprenti Sorcier, has been recently incorporated by Walt Disney in Fantasia with Mickey Mouse as the wicked apprentice.