Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847–1935)

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1847, Francisca Gonzaga, known as Chiquinha, learned the piano as a child. Married very young against her will, she left her husband a few years later, a scandal in the Brazilian society of the time, and earned her living as a teacher and as a pianist in music shops.

In 1877 her polka Atraente was a great success. Her music blends European dances (polka, waltz, tango) with Afro-Brazilian rhythms, and helped give birth to the maxixe and the choro. In 1885 she became the first woman to conduct an orchestra in Brazil.

She wrote dozens of operettas and revues for the theatre, such as Forrobodó (1912), and in 1899 composed Ó Abre Alas, the first march written for the Rio carnival. Her tango Corta-Jaca, played at the presidential palace in 1914, caused a scandal because popular music was heard there.

A campaigner for the abolition of slavery and for the Republic, she also founded in 1917 the Brazilian society of theatre authors, to defend creators’ rights. She died in Rio in 1935, leaving nearly two thousand works.