Composer, pianist, conductor, and organist, he was born in Fortaleza but moved to Rio de Janeiro with his family when he was eight years old. In 1886 he left for Europe with the help of the Bernardelli family, and subsequently studied in Rome and Berlin. In 1893 he traveled to Norway with his Norwegian wife, the pianist Walborg Bang, and the couple stayed with Grieg, a composer whose nationalism was influential in Nepomuceno's later works. His first compositions, however, displayed an unmistakable European flavor, and it was only after his return to Brazil that he began to forge a more personal style based on Brazilian musical roots, but his notion that the Portuguese language was not altogether suitable for singing brought him into a bitter conflict with the critic Oscar Guanabarino. He is considered the most important precursor of the Brazilian nationalist school, and was one of the first composers to recognize the great talent of the young Heitor Villa-Lobos, using his own prestige to help Villa-Lobos publish his first works. He was also extremely influential as a pedagogue, primarily through his work as director of the Instituto Nacional de Música, a position for which he was nominated twice in his lifetime. As the conductor of the orchestra of the Sociedade de Concertos Populares in Rio de Janeiro he introduced several European avant-garde works to the Brazilian audience. He was instrumental in promoting the use of the Portuguese language in art song, and was responsible for one of the most extensive collections of Brazilian traditional songs in the history of Brazilian music. His output covers a wide variety of genres in many media, such as symphonic, chamber, and operatic works.

Selected Works

• String Quartet no. 1 (1889) [Real Player] [Quicktime]
• String Quartet no. 2 (1890) [Real Player] [Quicktime]
• String Quartet no. 3 (1891) [Real Player] [Quicktime]