Artists

Francisco de Lacerda

Francisco
de Lacerda

Lacerda (1869-1934) was born in the Portuguese islands of the Azores. He studied at the Lisbon Conservatoire where he also taught. In 1895 he went to Paris, having studied at the Paris Conservatoire and later at the Schola Cantorum (with Vincent d’Indy) as a scholar. He was in contact with the most important personalities of his time (Eça de Queiroz, Erik Satie, Romain Rolland, Manuel de Falla, Isaac Albéniz, etc.). In 1904 he became director of the concert season at the La Baule Casino. Having been invited by Diaghilev’s Dance Company to accompany them on a tour to America, he was forced to decline. From 1913 to 1921 he stayed in the Azores to compose and further study the Azorean traditional music. In 1921 Lacerda was living in Lisbon, where he collaborated in the liveliness of the cultural life: together with Eugénio de Castro, Afonso Lopes Vieira, Malheiro Dias and Raul Lino he founded the Pró-arte Grou in 1923. He was also in the origin of the Lisbon Philharmony project, which was not successful. Back in France, Lacerda kept an intense activity as a conductor. (based on "História da Música" by Rui vieira Nery and Paulo Ferreira de Castro and "História da Música Portuguesa" by João Maria de Freitas Branco)