Claude Delvincourt (12 January 1888 – 5 April 1954) was a French pianist and composer of classical music.
Delvincourt was born in Paris, the son of Pierre Delvincourt and Marguerite Fourès.
He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, first under Leon Boëllmann, then Henri Busser. He was also taught counterpoint and fugue by Georges Caussade and composition by Charles Marie Widor. He won the Prix de Rome in 1910 and 1913 (when he shared it with Lili Boulanger). He was later appointed Director of Conservatoire at Versailles in 1932 and Director of the Paris Conservatoire in 1940, following the resignation of Henri Rabaud.[1]
During the German occupation of France, Delvincourt applied the racial laws of the Vichy government to the Paris Conservatoire, excluding Jewish professors and students.[2] But Delvincourt "did all he could to protect his flock, never asking for papers and always trying to hide illegal students.",[3] succeeded in saving many students and was threatened by the Gestapo. He was forced to disappear until the end of the Military occupation.
He died on April 5, 1954 in a car accident on a road in Orbetello, in the Grosseto province of Italy.