Mireille, Founder Of Conservatory, Dies

Mireille, a singer honored by the French government for fostering careers in music, died Sunday from pneumonia, her producer said. She was 90.

Mireille, known throughout France for founding the Little Conservatory of Song, was hospitalized in Paris on Dec. 17, Jean-Pierre Blamangin said.

Prime Minister Alain Juppe on Sunday called Mireille “a marvelous part of the history of song and of the French culture.”

The Paris native founded the Little Conservatory in 1955 and nurtured the voices of several young singers who became mainstays of the popular French variety radio and television shows.

In the 1940s and 1950s, she was the frequent companion of writers Albert Camus, Jean Cocteau and Andre Malraux.