Biography of Hubert de Blanck

Samenvatting

Hubert de Blanck was a Dutch-born pianist, composer and professor of music who lived most of his life in Cuba.His father was Willem de Blanck (born in1832), a violinist, and his mother Reine Valet (1835-1868), a singer. The couple settled in Rotterdam after their marriage, in 1853. They travelled frequently throughout Europe in order to stage performances. As a result of these trips, Hubert was not born in Rotterdam but rather in Utrecht, on 14 June 1856. In 1873, after successfully studying piano and composition at the conservatories of Liège and Cologne, he made his formal debut as a concert pianist in St. Petersburg at age seventeen. In 1874, he was named musical director of the El Dorado theatre in Warsaw, but he left the post the following year.Shortly thereafter, he met the precocious ...Brazilian violinist Eugène Maurice Dengremont (1866-1893), with whom he toured throughout Europe and South America. In 1881, de Blanck settled in New York, where he was awarded the position of Professor of Piano at the New York College of Music. In New York he met the Cuban-born Ana María García-Menocal (1859-1900), whom he married on 24 December 1881.In 1883, the couple moved to Havana with their first-born son, where de Blanck became very active in Cuba¿s musical community. In 1885, he founded the first Cuban Conservatory of Music.In 1895, at the outbreak of the Cuban War of Independence, de Blanck sympathized with the revolutionary movement and he had to leave Cuba. The family settled in New York. During his stay in this city, he accompanied several musicians on tours of the United States and Canada.In 1898, after the Cuban War of Independence had ended, the family returned to Havana, where de Blanck continued his musical activities as teacher, pianist, composer, publisher and organizer.On 19 September 1900, his wife Ana died. On 28 June 1902, he married Pilar Martín (1883-1955), who had been one of his students. Hubert de Blanck died in Havana on 28 November 1932, aged 76.