Pierre Boulez was many things: an iconoclast of the avant-garde; perhaps the most important figure shaping music of the second half of the 20th century; a revered conductor of works from Wagner to Webern; and, without a doubt, a genius who changed the face of classical music. While it's hard to overstate just how relentlessly committed to modernism he could be, especially in his younger years, he was above all else a lover of music and the possibilities contained within it. Boulez pioneered 20th-century classical music as performer, author, and teacher, and was instrumental in the creation of Paris’ IRCAM, a center for the research of music and sound, especially in the field of electro-acoustical art music.