Ernestina Lecuona Casado

Ernestina Lecuona Casado (born in Matanzas, 16 January 1882; died in Havana, 3 September 1951) was a Cuban composer and pianist from a distinguished family of musicians. Her brother Ernesto Lecuona and her grandson Leo Brouwer complete a lineage that left its mark on the music of the island, and it is worth bearing this in mind when placing her within Havana in the first decades of the twentieth century.

She trained at the Academy of the Centro Asturiano in Havana and continued her studies at the Municipal Conservatory, today the Amadeo Roldán School of Music, before refining her skills in Paris with Madame Calderón of the Paris Conservatoire. As a performer, she appeared as a solo pianist both in Cuba and abroad, and gave concerts for two pianos alongside her brother, for whom she composed three pieces, among them the Danza negra. In 1932 she met the singer Esther Borja, who would become her most faithful interpreter; together they toured Latin America, performing in theatres, on the radio and in films. In 1937 she was one of the founders of the Orquesta Femenina de Concierto.

Her catalogue is, to a large extent, made up of smaller forms: songs, anthems, waltzes and other Latin American dances. Of note is her habit of responding musically to the works of others, as with ¿Me odias?, a criolla conceived as a reply to Te odio by Félix B. Caignet. Some of her compositions have been recorded, although her output is today less widely known than that of her brother.