Josep

Composer, conductor and pedagogue 

He was a pupil of Nicolau Manent in the choir of the Verge del Remei of Barcelona. In 1875, he was appointed piano accompaniment and solfège teacher at the Liceu Conservatory, where he worked until 1883. In 1876, he was appointed director of Societat Coral Euterpe and in 1883 he was appointed conductor of the music academy of the Casa de la Caritat. From 1886 onwards, he was the conductor of the Municipal Band of Barcelona and conductor of the Municipal School of Music of Barcelona. In 1896, he moved to Donostia to conduct the band and the music school and in 1906 he settled in Buenos Aires, where he was the director of the Thibaud-Piazzini Conservatory. He composed almost 300 compositions, such as Primavera (1883) for orchestra, the dramatic idyll La nit al bosc (1883) by Apel·les Mestres and the oratorio Les set paraules (1875). He is best known as the composer of Virolai, hymn to the Virgin of Montserrat with the text by Jacint Verdaguer, and for being part of the Catalan delegation of the Board of the Bayreuth Festival.