Short-lived Belgian composer Adolphe Biarent was born in Fresnes-les-Gosselies, located near the industrial mining center of Charleroi, which he regarded as his hometown. Biarent entered the Brussels Conservatoire around 1890 and studied there for more than a decade, passing through the hands of numerous professors. Winning the Belgian Prix de Rome in 1901 with his cantata Oedipus at Colonnus, Biarent traveled to Italy, Germany, and Austria before deciding to settle into a position as conductor and teacher in Charleroi, and afterward he seldom left the city. Biarent built a first-class orchestra in Charleroi and was regarded throughout Europe as a superb harmony teacher; Belgian composer and conductor Fernand Quinet was among his students. Biarent's early death at age 44 was a considerable loss to his community; that it occurred amid the horror of World War I helped ensure his obscurity as a composer. Adolphe Biarent left about 20 works, of which half are orchestral, and this includes his impressive Symphony in D minor (1908; rev. 1911-12) which is, like the Franck symphony in the same key, cyclical in form, but different in nearly other way. Biarent was relatively rare among Belgian musicians of his day in that he was not overwhelmingly influenced by the example of Franck and his music demonstrates no useful contact with impressionism until the very end of his career. Biarent was influenced by Wagner, d'Indy, and the Russian "Mighty Handful"; he fused these influences into a style that was unique and reflected well the region in which he lived. A cellist, Biarent composed a fine Sonata for cello & piano (1915) and Two Sonnets for cello and orchestra (1913); his orchestral Poème heroïque (1911) has also been widely praised, along with his Piano Quartet in B minor. Some critics have cited Biarent as potentially one of the major figures of the post-romantic period, though he remains obscure; nevertheless, revivals of his piano and orchestra work Rapsodie wallonne and the flavorful orchestral suite Contes d'Orient has won Biarent's reputation some measure of favor in his home country.