Igor Stravinsky was born in Russia in 1882.  When the Russian Revolution started he moved to Switzerland and thence to Paris.  There, he wrote 'The Rite of Spring' for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes - a composition so shocking to his contemporaries that it made him famous around the world.  With the advent of war in 1939, he moved to the United States, settling in Hollywood. He was one of the most important composers of the 20th century, and a leader in modernism in music.