Joseph Boulogne also known as the Chevalier de Saint-Georges is perhaps the most famous musician and composer you've never heard of.
A soldier, athlete, musical genius and revolutionary.
He was the crème de la crème of 18th Century French society.
Boulogne was born in 1745 on the Carribean island of Guadeloupe then part of a large French empire in the Americas.
His mother was an enslaved Senegalese woman called Nanon - his father was George Boulogne, a white plantation owner.
Unusually for an illegitimate, mixed-heritage child Boulogne was given his aristocratic father's name.
George Boulogne was keen for his son to receive a good education and he was sent to France to be tutored in literature and fencing.
As well as showing great skill in sport, Boulogne was intelligent and charismatic which along with his father's social connections meant he was granted access to elite circles of French society.
It didn't hurt that he was quite the looker too.
As if being handsome, clever and a champion athlete wasn't enough Boulogne was a seriously skilled musician and composer.
