CERVANTES, Ignacio

Born in Havana, July 31, 1847 
Died in Havana, April 29, 1905 

• Cervantes was a Cuban conductor, composer, and pianist, and a student of Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Gottschalk, who integrated Creole and Latin American musical styles into his concert music, was a model for Cervantes, who sought to integrate Cuban music into his classical compositions. 
  • In contrast to the style of most 20^th-century Cuban composers, Cervantes’s music draws on Spanish-Cuban music, not Afro-Cuban music. 
• Cervantes also studied at the Paris Conservatory, where his teachers included Charles-Valentin Alkan. 
• Cervantes concertized in the United States, conducted opera in Cuba, and spent most of his later career in Mexico.¹

Biography from Naxos 

1. Aurelio de la Vega, “Cervantes (Kawanag), Ignacio,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed June 30, 2021,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000005311.