Nicolás Ruiz

Nicolás Ruiz Espadero was a Cuban pianist and composer born in Havana in 1832. He was the son of a Spanish pianist who had toured Cuba and later married an official of the colonial administration. His early musical development was shaped by his studies with Julián Fontana, who worked in Cuba in 1844–1845, and later with Fernando Aristi. These teachers helped lay the technical and artistic foundations for his later work as one of Cuba’s notable 19th‑century musicians.

Espadero maintained a long and fruitful friendship with Louis Moreau Gottschalk, with whom he exchanged artistic ideas and musical perspectives. His own creative output consisted mainly of chamber works and piano pieces. Among his compositions, the best known are “Song of the Peasant” (Canto del guajiro) and “Song of the Slave” (Canto del esclavo). For much of his career, however, he adhered to the European salon piano tradition. Only toward the end of his life did he revise his musical outlook, producing works of greater depth and seriousness, though these later compositions remained unpublished, unrecognized, and many were eventually lost.

Espadero was also a respected teacher and mentor. His students included Ignacio Cervantes, who would later become one of Cuba’s most important composers. He also offered guidance and support to the young Teresa Carreño during her stay in Cuba, contributing to her early artistic development.

In his final decade, Espadero lived a reclusive and eccentric life. His death in 1890 was tragic: having developed the habit of taking alcohol baths, he stepped out of one without drying himself and approached a gas lamp to extinguish it. His alcohol‑soaked body caught fire, and he died several days later in Havana from severe burns.

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