Guillaume Lekeu (January 20, 1870 – January 21, 1894) was a Belgian composer of classical music.
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Lekeu, who was born in Verviers, Belgium, took his first lessons at the conservatoire in that city. In 1879, his parents moved to Poitiers, France. There, he finished school while he continued his music studies autodidactically. At the age of 15, he composed his first piece.
In 1888, his family settled down in Paris where Lekeu became a student of César Franck. After Franck's death, Vincent d'Indy became his new teacher. He obtained in 1891 a second Prix de Rome for his cantata Andromède.
The famous violin virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe, who had been friendly with Franck, asked Lekeu to write for him a violin sonata. Ysaÿe played this composition for the first time in March 1893, and it remains Lekeu's most popular piece. At the age of 23, Lekeu fell ill with typhoid fever and died in Angers only one day after his 24th birthday. He was buried in a suburb of Verviers.
Lekeu composed about 50 works. Several of them have been recorded a number of times, notably the violin sonata. His style shows influences of Franck, Wagner and Beethoven, though he was never a mere imitator of those masters. He used cyclic principles; that is to say, themes in his works will often recur from movement to movement, as they do in a good many of Franck's and d'Indy's compositions. In general, Lekeu is regarded as a highly talented composer who died far too young.