José White Lafitte

José Silvestre de los Dolores White Lafitte ( born January 17, 1836 in Matanzas, † March 15, 1918 in Paris ) was an Afro-Cuban violinist and composer.

Life and work

White had violin lessons with José Miguel Roman and Pedro Lecerff. In 1854 he gave his first public concert in Matanzas. His accompanist was Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who encouraged him to continue his musical education in Paris.

In 1855 he began to study at the Conservatoire de Paris, where Jean- Delphin Alard (violin), Napoléon -Henri Reber (composition) and Ferdinand Taite ( counterpoint and fugue ) to his teachers were. In 1856 he received the Premier Grand Prix in violin.

1857-58 White was a first violinist in a string quartet. Then he returned due to an illness of his father to Cuba, where he appeared again with Gottschalk. From 1861 to 1874 he lived in Paris again. He came here successfully as a soloist and chamber musician and in 1865 a member of the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire. Among his violin pupils included, inter alia, George Enescu and Jacques Thibaud.

In the early 1870s undertook a concert tour of Europe White, after which he toured North and South America. Between 1875 and 1877 he appeared in New York, Boston, Washington and Philadelphia. From 1877 to 1889 he was director of the Conservatory of Rio de Janeiro. From Emperor Dom Pedro II, he was appointed Hofviolinisten, and he and Arthur Napoleão 1883 Sociedade de Concertos Clássicos. From 1889 he lived again as a violinist, teacher and composer in Paris.

As a composer, White was under the influence of European musicians such as Henryk Wieniawski and Henri Vieuxtemps. He composed, among others a violin concerto, a string quartet, a Bolero for Violin and Orchestra, Variations for Harpsichord and Orchestra, as well as pieces for violin and piano.