José Maurício Nunes Garcia

José Maurício Nunes Garcia (September 22, 1767 – April 18, 1830) was a Brazilian classical composer, one of the greatest exponents of Classicism in the Americas.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, son of mulattos, Nunes Garcia lost his father at an early age, and his mother perceived that her son had an inclination for becoming a musician and, for this reason, improved her work to allow him to continue his musical studies.

Nunes Garcia became a priest and, when prince John VI of Portugal came to Rio de Janeiro with his 15,000 people, Nunes Garcia was appointed Master of the Royal Chapel. He sang and played the harpsichord, performing his compositions as well as those of other composers such as Domenico Cimarosa and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He was a very prestigious musician in the royal court of John VI.

His musical style was strongly influenced by Viennese composers of the period, such as Mozart and Haydn. Today, some 240 musical pieces written by Nunes Garcia survive, and at least 170 others are known to have been lost [1]. Most of his compositions are sacred works, but he wrote also some secular pieces, including the opera Le due gemelle and the Tempest Symphony.

On September 22, 1767, in a humble house at Rua da Vala, in Rio de Janeiro, a boy was born to a couple of free mulattos, Vitória Maria da Cruz and the tailor Apolinário Nunes Garcia.

Vitória was born in the city of Mariana, in the province of Minas Gerais, and Apolinário, in Ilha do Governador (Governor's Island), near the city of Rio de Janeiro. Victoria's mother was Joana Gonçalves, slave of Simão Gonçalves, and Apolinário was the son of Ana Correa do Desterro, slave of the parrish Apolinário Nunes Garcia. Their baptism documents have no record of their fathers' names, an evidence they were both their lord's children. Victoria and Apolinário married in 1762.

The boy, who had been born on St Maurice's day, was baptized José Mauricio Nunes Garcia, on December 20 of this same year, in the city's See, now the church of Nossa Senhora do Rosário.

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