French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez has died at the age of 90, reports the BBC.
His family said the world-renowned musician died on Tuesday at his home in Baden-Baden, Germany.
"For all those who met him and were able to appreciate his creative energy, his artistic vigour... will remain alive and strong," they said.
As well as being a world-famous composer, Boulez was a prolific writer and pianist and was also known as the head of the Paris Philharmonic.
He was the founder and former director of the Paris based Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique and was also famed for his work alongside leading experimental composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Olivier Messiaen.
French prime minister Manuel Valls paid tribute to Boulez on Twitter: "Courage, innovation, creativity, this is what Pierre Boulez meant to the world of French music, of which he made a beacon of light throughout the world."
Born in the Loire region of France in 1925, Boulez began his musical career at the Conservatoire in Paris, one of the world's most celebrated music schools.
He graduated in 1945 and, still only 21, became musical director of the theatre company of Jean-Louis Barrault and Madeleine Renaud.
During this period he composed violent early pieces such as his first two piano sonatas and Livre Pour Quatuor for the string quartet.