Pablo Castellanos León ( Mérida,

Yucatán Yucatán, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate municipalities, and its capital city is Mérida. ...

, September 27, 1860 –

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, January 28, 1928) was a Mexican pianist, conductor, and music teacher who was a renowned

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

ian focusing on the German and French traditions.

Biography

He was born in Mérida Yucatán on September 27, 1860, the son of Pablo Castellanos y Rendón, a lawyer and politician who served as

governor of Yucatán The governor of the State of Yucatan is the head of the executive branch of the Mexican state of Yucatán, elected to a six-year-term and not eligible for reelection. The figure of the governor is established on the Constitution of the State of Y ...

during the

caste war A caste is a fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (endogamy), foll ...

, and Mercedes Rodríguez de León y Echazarre. He began his music studies under José Jacinto Cuevas. In 1875, aged fifteen, he arrived in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

, where he studied at the National Conservatory of Music under

Melesio Morales Melesio Morales (sometimes spelled Melisio Morales) (December 4, 1838 – May 12, 1908) was a Mexican composer. Morales was born and died in Mexico City, where he studied music; two of his operas, written in Italian, were performed there. He ...

. Due to his talent as a pianist, he continued his studies at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...

(1880–85), studying under

Antoine François Marmontel Antoine François Marmontel (; 18 July 1816 – 16 January 1898) was a French pianist, composer, teacher and musicographer. He is mainly known today as an influential teacher at the Paris Conservatory, where he taught many musicians who became l ...

, whose many distinguished pupils included

Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

Georges Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', w ...

, and

Edward MacDowell Edward Alexander MacDowell (December 18, 1860January 23, 1908) was an American composer and pianist of the late Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites '' Woodland Sketches'', ''Sea Pieces'' and ''Ne ...

. His artistic personality was so prominent within the Paris Conservatoire that Marmontel praised his distinguished Mexican pupil in his book ''Silhouettes et Medaillons, Virtuoses Contemporaines'' (1887). He returned to Mexico in 1885 accompanied by Juan Hernández Acevedo, the prominent Mexican flutist, with whom he had become friends in Paris. In Mexico City, he associated with

Felipe Villanueva Felipe is the Spanish variant of the name Philip, which derives from the Greek adjective ''Philippos'' "friend of horses". Felipe is also widely used in Portuguese-speaking Brazil alongside Filipe, the form commonly used in Portugal. Noteworthy ...

Ricardo Castro Ricardo Castro Herrera (Rafael de la Santísima Trinidad Castro Herrera) (7 February 1864 – 27 November 1907) was a Mexican concert pianist and composer, considered the last romantic of the time of Porfirio Díaz. Life Castro was bor ...

, Gustavo E. Campa, and other distinguished Mexican musicians from the so-called "Group of Six", which transformed musical education in Mexico which, until then, had focused on the Italian musical tradition, embodied by his former tutor Melisio Morales, largely ignoring the German and French tradition. The Group published, promoted, and reproduced works by

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period who wrote primarily for Piano solo, solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown ...

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

and

Anton Rubinstein Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein (; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He was the elder brother of Nikolai Rubinstein, who founded the Moscow Conservatory. As a pianist, Rubinstein ran ...

which, until then, were disregarded by the Mexico City Conservatory. In 1887, he was one of the founders of the "Campa-Hernández Acevedo Musical Institute", an establishment that promoted musical education in the country, and shortly thereafter returned to his native Mérida. Upon his return, he wanted to revolutionize piano teaching in Yucatán, undertaking to translate Félix Richert's seminal work "''L ' Art de jouer du piano suivant les lois de la nature"'' (1864) from the original French. Around that time he suffered an accident that impaired his use of his left hand, cutting short his brilliant musical career. He then dedicated himself to teaching and sponsoring talented pianists such as Ricardo Río Díaz and José Rubio Milán. After the

Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution () was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It saw the destruction of the Federal Army, its ...

, he went into exile in the United States and Europe. He died in Paris, France on January 28, 1928.

Personal life

In 1903 he married Hortensia Cámara Vales, also a renowned pianist and daughter of

Raymundo Cámara Luján Raymundo Cámara Luján (May 14, 1850 – April 15, 1919) was a prominent Mexican entrepreneur, banker, landowner, and philanthropist who played a significant role in the economic expansion that the Yucatán Peninsula experienced in the late 19t ...

, the

business magnate A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

and head of the Cámara family. He was the brother-in-law of

José María Pino Suárez José María Pino Suárez (; 8 September 1869 – 22 February 1913) was a Mexican politician, lawyer, journalist, and newspaper proprietor. He served as the seventh and last Vice President of Mexico from 1911 until his assassination in 1913, ...

vice president of Mexico The office of the vice president of Mexico was first created by the 1824 Constitution of Mexico, Constitution of 1824, then it was abolished in 1836 by the Siete Leyes, Seven Constitutional Laws, then briefly restored in 1846 following the restor ...

, and brother-in-law of

Alfredo Alfredo (, ) is a cognate of the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon name Alfred (name), Alfred and a common Italian language, Italian, Galician language, Galician, Portuguese language, Portuguese and Spanish language personal name. Given name Artists a ...

and

Nicolás Cámara Vales Nicolás Cámara Vales (1875 — 1956) was a Mexican liberal politician, diplomat and physician who served as governor of Yucatán on two occasions between 1911 and 1913 during the early stages of the Mexican Revolution. He was also the brother ...

governor of Quintana Roo The governors of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, since statehood. Governors of the Free and Sovereign State of Quintana Roo since 1975 *Note: In 2001 Mario E. Villanueva was sentenced to prison due to corruption involving drugs, Mexican dr ...

and Yucatán, respectively. His nephew by marriage was Alfredo Pino Cámara,

associate justice An associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some ...

of the

Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (, SCJN) is the Mexican institution serving as the country's federal high court and the spearhead organisation for the judiciary of the Mexican Federal Government. Judges of the SCJN are appointed ...

. He was the granduncle of Ismael Moreno Pino,

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

and undersecretary of Foreign Affairs and Fernando Cámara Barbachano, the noted

social anthropologist Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

. His only son was Pablo Castellanos Cámara, a distinguished pianist who graduated from the

and Berlin conservatories where he studied under

Alfred Cortot Alfred Denis Cortot ( , ; 26 September 187715 June 1962) was a French pianist, conductor, and teacher who was one of the most renowned classical musicians of the 20th century. A pianist of massive repertory, he was especially valued for his po ...

and

Edwin Fischer Edwin Fischer (6 October 1886 – 24 January 1960) was a Swiss classical pianist and conductor. He is regarded as one of the great interpreters of J.S. Bach and Mozart in the twentieth century. Biography Fischer was born in Basel and studied m ...

, respectively.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castellanos Leon, Pablo Pino-Cámara family 1860 births 1928 deaths Mexican classical pianists Mexican conductors (music) Mexican music educators Mexican expatriates in France Mexican expatriates in the United States