Alberto Nepomuceno occupies an important position as a pioneer of Brazilian music, indebted to his teacher Fonseca, and active in his encouragement of the young Villa-Lobos. A period in Europe brought study in Berlin, lessons with the organist Guilmant in Paris, contact with Brahms and significantly with Grieg, one of whose pupils became his wife. Distinguished in his career in Brazil as a teacher, conductor and composer, he wrote in a musical language that owed much to contemporary European
