Nicolás Ruiz Espadero

Nicolás Ruiz Espadero (Havana, 1832 – Havana, 1890) was a Cuban composer, pianist and teacher, and a leading figure of Romanticism in his country.

Born into a well-to-do and cultured family, he received his first music lessons from his mother, and reportedly composed passable pieces from the age of three or four, an anecdotal detail that cannot be verified with certainty.

He later studied with Julian Fontana, Juan Miro and Fernando Arizti. In 1854 he met Gottschalk, whose performances helped make his works known, and a lasting friendship developed between the two. Besides composing, he worked as a pianist, choir conductor and concert promoter, and his works gained notoriety in both Spain and Cuba. As a teacher, his pupils included Gaspar Villate and Ignacio Cervantes.

His music, Romantic in style, falls, according to the musicologist Tieles Ferrer, into two groups: works of a national character, based on Creole rhythms or melodies, and others of a more European cast. Among the former, the Canto del guajiro and the Canto del esclavo stand out. His legacy also includes the transcription and editing of several pieces by Gottschalk, with a preface of 1872 in which he set out aesthetic ideas he shared with Gottschalk on nationalist expression in music.