Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (25 December 1745 – 10 June 1799), was a French Creole virtuoso violinist and composer, who was conductor of the leading symphony orchestra in Paris. Saint-Georges was born in the then-French colony of Guadeloupe, the son of Georges de Bologne Saint-Georges, a wealthy married planter, and an enslaved Senegalese African woman named Nanon. At the age of seven he was taken to France, and at the age of thirteen educated as gendarme to the King. He received music lessons from François-Joseph Gossec and likely violin lessons from Jean-Marie Leclair, while continuing to study fencing. In 1764 Antonio Lolli dedicated two concertos to Saint-Georges. In 1769 he joined a new symphony orchestra; two years later he was appointed concertmaster and soon started composing. In 1773 he was appointed conductor of "Le Concert des Amateurs". In 1775 he introduced the symphonie concertante, using the possibilities offered by a new bow. In 1776 he was proposed as the next conductor of the Paris Opera but was subsequently denied this role by a petition by the divas of the time to the Queen. In 1778, he lived for around 2.5 months near to Mozart in the Chaussee d'Antin, and stopped composing instrumental works altogether by 1785. However, he was still acquainted with and remained friendly with several composers (notably, Salieri, Gossec, Gretry, Mozart and Gluck). He joined “Le Concert des amateurs,” which was an orchestra of amateurs and professionals founded by Gossec. He became the concertmaster by 1771 and the orchestra’s conductor in 1773. After the orchestra disbanded in 1781, he joined a new orchestra formed by a masonic lodge that was called Le Concert de la Loge Olympique. He was a conductor of the unusually large orchestra of professionals and amateurs and in 1784 was authorized to commission Franz Joseph Haydn to write six symphonies for them. These works were premiered in 1787 and are known today as Haydn’s “Paris” symphonies, nos. 82-87. He travelled to London for a personal meeting with the Prince of Wales and George III, in 1787. Following the 1789 outbreak of the French Revolution, and now approaching 45 years of age, Saint-Georges served as a colonel of the Légion St.-Georges, established in 1792 as the first all-black regiment in Europe, and the first of its kind to be defending the French First Republic. Today, le Chevalier de Saint-Georges is best remembered as the