Artist Info: Ignacio Cervantes

Ignacio Cervantes Kawanagh (Havana, 31 July 1847 – Havana, 29 April 1905) was a Cuban virtuoso pianist and composer, considered to be one of the most influential to the Music of Cuba.

A child prodigy, he was taught by hometown pianist Juan Miguel Joval, later by composer and tutor Nicolás Ruiz Espadero (1859), and by the visiting American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Gottschalk encouraged Cervantes to study at the Conservatoire de Paris (1866-1870) under Antoine François Marmontel and Charles-Valentin Alkan [read more...]