José Maurício Nunes Garcia

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José Maurício Nunes Garcia, Brazilian classical composer, was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at September 20, 1767, and died in the same city in April 18, 1830. He was one of the greatest composers of the Classicism in Americas.

Son of mulattoes, Nunes Garcia lost his father in the childhood, and his mother perceived his son had inclination for becoming a musicist and, for this reason, improved his work for maintaining him in his studies.

Nunes Garcia became a priest and, when the prince John VI of Portugal came to Rio de Janeiro with her 15 000 people, he became the master of the royal chapel. Due to his vocal resources, he was singing and playing the harpsichord at the same time, his compositions or from other composers like Domenico Cimarosa and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He was a very prestigious musicist in the royal court of John VI.

His musical style was strongly influenced by the Austrian composers of that time, like Mozart and Haydn. In present days there are a known 240 musical pieces written by him. Most of them are sacred pieces, but he wrote also some secular pieces, including the opera Le Due Gemelle and the Tempest Symphony.