Name Jose Jimenez Role Composer | Parents Jose Julian Jimenez | |
Died January 15, 1917, Hamburg, Germany | ||
José Manuel ("Lico") Jiménez Berroa (7 December 1851 – 15 January 1917) was a Cuban pianist and composer.
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Early years
José Manuel Jiménez was born in Trinidad, Cuba, Las Villas province into a musical family. He was the son of Maria Andrea Berroa and violinist Jose Julian Jiménez and was baptized in 1852 at the Parochial Church of the Santísima Trinidad. His grandfather was Francisco Nicasio Jiménez, orchestra and band leader. Jiménez studied music as a child with his father and his aunt, Cuban musician and composer Catalina Berroa, and at the age of 15 was hired as an accompanist for a concert at Palacio Brunet by visiting German violinist Karl Werner. At the recommendation of Werner, Jiménez traveled to Europe in 1867, where he studied piano with the Carl Armbrust in Hamburg, Carl Reinecke and Ignaz Moscheles at the Leipzig Conservatory and in Paris with Antoine Marmontel.
Career
After completing his studies, Jiménez toured as a concert pianist. With his father and brother Nicasio Jiménez, he formed one of the first all black ensembles, billed as "Das Negertrio", and successfully toured in Europe, the Americas and in Cuba as a soloist and with the ensemble, playing mostly 19th-century Romantic compositions.
Although successful in Europe, Jiménez found his music was less accepted in Cuba. He toured the island and worked for a while as a music teacher in Trinidad, but in 1890 returned to Germany and settled in Hamburg, where he became active at the Weimar court. He was befriended by Franz Liszt, and became a director of the Hamburg Conservatory of Music. He was the first Cuban composer to work with the lied form. Jiménez married a German woman in 1899, Emma Filter, and had children Manuela, Adolfo and Andrea. He died in Hamburg.
Works
Selected works include: