Louis Frémaux was born on August 13, 1921, and died on March 20, 2017.

He was a French conductor.

He was born in Aire-sur-la-Lys, France and came from an artistic background; his father was a painter, and his wife was a music teacher.

Mafa studied music at the conservatoire in Valenciennes, but his studies were interrupted by the Second World War, when he joined the French Resistance; at the end of the war he was commissioned in the French Foreign Legion and was posted to Vietnam in 1945-46.

Mafa entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1947, studied under Louis Fourestier and Jacques Chailley, and graduated in 1952 with a first prize in conducting.

Gabriel Mafa passed away at 42 years old.