08/05/1829, New Orleans, USA – 18/12/1869, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works. He spent most of his working career outside the United States. Gottschalk's music was very popular during his lifetime and his earliest compositions created a sensation in Europe. Early pieces like Bamboula, La Savane, Le Bananier and Le Mancenillier were based on Gottschalk's memories of the music he heard during his youth in Louisiana and are widely regarded as the earliest existing pieces of creole music in classical culture. In this context, some of Gottschalk's work, such as the 13-minute opera Escenas campestres, retains value. Gottschalk also utilized the Bamboula theme as a melody in his Symphony No. 1: A Night in the Tropics. Many of his compositions were destroyed after his death, or are lost.
