French influence on American twentieth-century music has long been central to historical narratives, particularly in relation to Nadia Boulanger and her pupils from the 1920s onward. Yet the much earlier impact of Gabriel FaurĂ© (1845â1924), Boulanger's own teacher, has been largely ignored. While most American audiences around the turn of the century were largely unfamiliar with FaurĂ©, Boston embraced his music enthusiastically. By the 1890s, a growing Francophile aesthetic reflected in the city's musical life encouraged performances of French repertoire, and a remarkable number of FaurĂ©'s compositions were introduced, some heard frequently enough to become well known to local audiences. Many of Boston's most influential critics, educators, performers and patrons admired FaurĂ© and advocated for him as a representative modern French composer. That his music was so warmly welcomed in Boston at the end of the nineteenth century without any overt self-promotion by the composer has not been widely known until now. Although FaurĂ© never visited the United States, his music found a home away from home in Boston, both while he was still living and well beyond.