Isaac Albeniz

Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz was born on May 29, 1860 in Camprodón, the Catalan province of Gerona in northeastern Spain. As a child he was exceptionally gifted at the piano and gave his first public performance in Barcelona at the age of four. Two years later his mother took him to Paris where, for nine months, he studied privately with a renowned professor of piano at the Paris Conservatory. An attempt was made to enroll Albéniz at the Conservatory, but the boy was denied admission because he was too young. Upon returning to Spain he gave several concerts and published his first composition, Marcha Militar.
In 1868 the Albéniz family moved to Madrid where Isaac began studying at the Royal Conservatory of Music. The boy's astonishing pianistic ability inspired great praise and he was acclaimed as Spain's greatest prodigy, often being compared to Mozart. Soon, however, Albéniz became restless and impatient with his studies and attempted many times to run away from home. Twice he ran away from home and supported his living by playing piano for the public and, sometimes, a job as a potter at the deck. After returning home and with the companion of his father, Albéniz first performed in the New World in the spring of 1875 when he gave a series of concerts in Puerto Rico. From there he traveled to Cuba where, in the fall of 1875, he gave several more concerts before returning to Spain.
Upon returning to Spain, the 15 year old Albéniz gave concerts in several Spanish cities, including Barcelona, Valencia, and Salamanca. Realizing that his child prodigy days were nearing an end, and that the transition from child prodigy to mature artist is never a simple one, Albéniz enrolled at the Leipzig Conservatory where he hoped to gain the measure of credibility that one gets from studying at a world famous institution. While there he studied piano with students of Liszt. Short of money, ill at ease with the German language, and unhappy with the rigorous