Eugene Bozza was born in Nice and made an early impact at the Paris Conservatoire as a brilliant
violinist and conductor, gaining recognition as a composer when he won the prestigious Prix de Rome
in 1934. Although he went on to write five symphonies and several operas and ballets, like many
French composers he spent much of his life as an academic, becoming head of the Valenciennes
Conservatoire in 1948. In this capacity he wrote much of the wind chamber music for which he is
now best known and of which this short Caprice, from 1943, is absolutely typical.