Entry of the Gladiators (also known as March of Triumph) Op. 68 is a military march composed by Bohemian composer and conductor Julius Ernest Wilhelm Fucík. In 1897, while assigned to the 86th infantry regiment in Sarajevo, he composed Entry of the Gladiators, which originally had a French name: Grande Marche Chromatique. He later changed the title to reflect his admiration for the Roman Empire.

In 1910, Canadian composer Louis-Philippe Laurendeau (1861-1916) wrote an arrangement of Entry of the Gladiators, entitled Thunder and Blazes. It was during this period that the work gained popularity as circus music, often used for clown entrances. Indeed, it is the world's best-known circus march, and has become a musical icon for this form of entertainment.

Julius Ernest Wilhelm Fucík, born on July 18, 1872 in Prague and died on September 25, 1916 in Berlin, was a Bohemian composer and military bandleader. He received a fine musical education, studying from the age of thirteen at the Prague Conservatory with Antonín Dvorák. His classmates included composer and violinist Josef Suk and conductor and composer Oskar Nedbal. During the reign of Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria, he did his military service as a violinist and bassoonist. He then remained in the army, becoming bandmaster of the 86th Foot Regiment in Budapest.

He left the military band before the outbreak of the First World War and moved to Berlin, where he established his own music publishing house. He also set up his own orchestra, called the Prague Artists' Orchestra, with which he performed Czech classics, including works by Bedrich Smetana and Antonín Dvorák.

As a composer himself, he is best known for his Entrée des gladiateurs, but also for marches (Florentiner Marsch) and elegant waltzes. Like the 19th-century composers of the Strauss dynasty, his compositions are akin to Viennese music, with rhythms based mainly on waltzes, polkas, marches, mazurkas and galops.

Along his university studies (DEA in musicology, University of Paris IV-Sorbonne), Frédéric Cellier was awarded three first prizes and a development prize at the CNR of Nice and won first prize at the International Competition of Musical Execution - soloist category – of Stresa (Italy).
He is the laureate of the Fondation de France and the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation and accredited teacher at the CNR of Nice, the CNR of Marseille, and at the CRR Olivier Messiaen of Avignon (France).
Frédéric Cellier is the interpreter of Francis Poulenc’s Sonata for clarinet Bb and piano with Jean-Michel Damase, Jean Françaix or Gabriel Tacchino, but also performs his own version for clarinet, piano and string orchestra of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in blue for Wynton Marsalis or under the baton of Adrian Gershwin, grandson of the composer.
Founder and artistic director of STRADIVARIUS Editions, he is the author of pieces of light music and a considerable number of arrangements in all styles and for all instruments acclaimed by numerous personalities in the music world:

"Frédéric Cellier has produced a number of adaptations of Georges Auric's works with such talent and precision that I consider them a natural addition to his chamber music catalogue."
Michèle AURIC - Georges Auric's widow

"To Frédéric Cellier, excellent musician and tireless arranger."
Jean FRANÇAIX - Composer and pianist

"Arranging a musical work is always a delicate and risky exercise, because it requires both modifying it so that it can be played by the desired instruments and preserving its very essence. But that is exactly what Frédéric Cellier has done, preserving the nuances, subtleties and soul of the original works while breathing new life into them.
His arrangements give all the musicians the chance to perform these compositions specially revisited for their instrument, and make music lovers rediscover them in a new light."
Adrian GERSHWIN - George Gershwin’s grandson

"Congratulations for your beautiful new orchestration and rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in blue."
Wynton MARSALIS - Trumpet player, composer, bandleader, general and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York

"It is outstanding that Frédéric Cellier has managed to transpose Saxophone Marmalade from the saxophone to the clarinet. I thank him for it and wish its great and deserved success. "
Manuel ROSENTHAL - Conductor, composer and Maurice Ravel’s pupil

"I am very happy to tell you how much I appreciated your transcription of the Capriccio, based on Francis Poulenc's Le Bal Masqué. It perfectly reflects the spirit and verve of the score for two pianos that I had the opportunity to play and record with Jacques Février, and it was a great pleasure for me to premiere it in Montpellier."
Gabriel TACCHINO - Pianist, Francis Poulenc’s specialist

"I must tell you that I really like your transcriptions and that I think the tone of the instruments you have chosen suits perfectly our beloved composer."
Ornella VOLTA - Musicologist, president of the Erik Satie’s Foundation