Messiaen started to compose when he was seven years old. When he was given the score of Debussy’s opera "Pelléas et Mélisande" he could imagine the music in his head and he knew he wanted to be a composer. He went to the Paris Conservatoire when he was 11. His teachers included some famous composers such as Paul Dukas, Maurice Emmanuel, Charles-Marie Widor and Marcel Dupré. He was appointed organist at the church of La Trinité in Paris in 1930, a post he held until his death.