françaix's natural gifts were encouraged from an early age by his family. his father, director of the conservatoire of le mans, was a musicologist, composer, and pianist, and his mother was a teacher of singing. jean françaix studied at the conservatoire of le mans and then at the paris conservatory, and was only six when he took up composing with a style heavily influenced by ravel. françaix's first publication, in 1922, caught the attention of a composer working for the publishing house who steered the gifted boy toward a gifted teacher, nadia boulanger (who, after her sister's death in 1918, devoted her life to conducting, playing the organ and teaching). boulanger encouraged françaix's career, considering the young composer to be one of the best, if not the best, of her students. noted pianist and pedagogue isidor philipp also taught him. françaix himself often played his own works, to public acclaim; notably in the premiere of his concertino for piano and orchestra at the festival of baden-baden in 1932.