Amédée-Ernest Chausson (January 20, 1855 - June 10, 1899) was a French romantic composer born into a wealthy Parisian family. He initially studied law and became a lawyer at the Court of Appeals. At the age of 25 he began attending composition classes at the Paris Conservatoire taught by the opera composer Jules Massenet. It is from these lessons that Chausson's earliest manuscripts survive. Beginning in 1886 Chausson was secretary of the Société Nationale de Musique, and remained in that position until his death. It was through these activities that he befriended composers Henri Duparc, Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, and Isaac Albéniz, the poet Stéphane Mallarmé, the Russian novelist and playwright Ivan Turgenev, and the impressionist painter Claude Monet.

Chausson's artistic vision, though extremely individual, does reflect the influences of both César Franck and Richard Wagner, as well as traces of Massenet and even Johannes Brahms. His orchestral output was small, but significant and includes his singular Symphony in B Flat Major, completed in 1890. The Turgenev-inspired Poème for Violin and Orchestra from 1896 is a mainstay of the violin repertoire. Owing to his late start, and tragically short life, Chausson left behind only 39 numbered works.