Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Juan Crisóstomo Jacobo Antonio de Arriaga y Balzola
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Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga
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| Born | January 27, 1806 Bilbao, Spain
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| Died | January 17, 1826 (aged 19) Paris, France
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| Occupation | Composer |
| Parent(s) | Juan Simón de Arriaga |
Juan Crisóstomo Jacobo Antonio de Arriaga y Balzola (January 27, 1806 – January 17, 1826) was a Spanish Basque composer. He was nicknamed "the Spanish Mozart" after he died, because, like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, he was both a child prodigy and an accomplished composer who died young at the age of 19. They also shared the same first and second baptismal names; and they shared the same birthday, January 27 (fifty years apart).
Life
Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga was born in Bilbao, Biscay, on what would have been Mozart's fiftieth birthday. His father (Juan Simón de Arriaga) and the boy's older brother first taught him music.
In September 1821 Arriaga's father, with the encouragement of composer José Sobejano y Ayala (1791–1857), sent Juan Crisóstomo to Paris, where in November of that year Arriaga began his studies. These included violin under Pierre Baillot, counterpoint with Luigi Cherubini and harmony under François-Joseph Fétis at the Paris Conservatoire. Arriaga made quite an impression on his teachers. Arriaga soon became a teaching assistant in Fétis's class, noted and highly praised both by fellow students and other faculty at the Conservatoire for his talent.
Arriaga was well supported during his four years in Paris by his father, but the intensity of his commitment to his studies at the Conservatoire and his meteoric rise, based on his teachers' compliments and assessments of his promise, may have taken a toll on his health: he died in Paris ten days before his twentieth birthday, of a lung ailment (possibly tuberculosis), or exhaustion, perhaps both.
He was buried in an unmarked grave at the Cimetière du Nord in Montmartre. Thanks to the Spanish Embassy, there is since 1977 a plaque marking the house at 314 rue Saint-Honoré in memory of the composer.
Images for kids
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The Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao is one of the centers of the August city festivals
See also
In Spanish: Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga para niños
