Pablo Castellanos León

He was born in Mérida Yucatán on September 27, 1860, the son of Pablo Castellanos y Rendón, a lawyer and politician who served as governor of Yucatán during the caste war,{{Cite book |last=Ghigliazza |first=Manuel Mestre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=csm_CI5bj5YC&q=pablo+castellanos+rend%C3%B3n+gobernador |title=Efemérides biográficas (defunciones-nacimientos) |date=1945 |publisher=Antigua librería Robredo, J. Porrúa e hijos |language=es}} and Mercedes Rodríguez de León y Echazarre.

He began his music studies under José Jacinto Cuevas. In 1875, aged fifteen, he arrived in Mexico City, where he studied at the National Conservatory of Music under Melesio Morales.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9vAvAQAAIAAJ&q=melesio+morales+pablo+castellanos |title=Heterofonía |date=2002 |language=es}} Due to his talent as a pianist, he continued his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris (1880–85), studying under Antoine François Marmontel, whose many distinguished pupils included Claude Debussy, Georges Bizet, and Edward MacDowell. His artistic personality was so prominent within the Paris Conservatoire that Marmontel praised his distinguished Mexican pupil in his book Silhouettes et Medaillons, Virtuoses Contemporaines (1887).{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FL5oAAAAMAAJ&q=Silhouettes+et+Medaillons,+Virtuoses+Contemporaines+pablo+castellanos |title=Yucatán en el tiempo: C-E |date=1998 |publisher=Inversiones Cares |isbn=978-970-9071-02-3 |language=es}}{{Cite book |last=Trujillo |first=Carlos A. Echánove |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qIEWAAAAYAAJ&q=arte+de+tocar+el+piano+seg%C3%BAn+las+leyes+naturales |title=Enciclopedia yucatanense: conmemorativa del IV centenario de Mérida y Valladolid (Yucatán) |date=1944 |publisher=Edición Oficial del Gobierno de Yucatán |language=es}}

He returned to Mexico in 1885 accompanied by Juan Hernández Acevedo, the prominent Mexican flutist, with whom he had become friends in Paris. In Mexico City, he associated with Felipe Villanueva, Ricardo Castro, Gustavo E. Campa, and other distinguished Mexican musicians from the so-called "Group of Six",{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rbtbAAAAMAAJ&q=grupo+de+los+seis+pablo+castellanos |title=Pauta |date=1984 |publisher=Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana |language=es}} which transformed musical education in Mexico which, until then, had focused on the Italian musical tradition, embodied by his former tutor Melisio Morales, largely ignoring the German and French tradition. The Group published, promoted, and reproduced works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt and Anton Rubinstein which, until then, were disregarded by the Mexico City Conservatory.{{Cite web |title=Edad, biografía de Felipe Villanueva |url=https://www.last.fm/es/music/Felipe+Villanueva/+wiki |access-date=2023-01-25 |website=Last.fm |language=es}}

In 1887, he was one of the founders of the "Campa-Hernández Acevedo Musical Institute", an establishment that promoted musical education in the country,{{Cite web |title=Historia de la música - Biografías - Música Mexicana de Concierto |url=http://www.sacm.org.mx/mmc/biografias_detalle.asp?id=11 |access-date=2023-01-25 |website=www.sacm.org.mx}} and shortly thereafter returned to his native Mérida.

Upon his return, he wanted to revolutionize piano teaching in Yucatán, undertaking to translate Félix Richert's seminal work "L ' Art de jouer du piano suivant les lois de la nature" (1864) from the original French.{{Cite book |last=Richert |first=Felix |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rMjQFx7LQzYC |title=L'art du jouer du piano |date=1864 |publisher=A. Leduc |language=fr}}{{Cite web |title=arte de tocar el piano según las leyes naturales - Google Search |url=https://www.google.com/search?q=arte+de+tocar+el+piano+seg%C3%BAn+las+leyes+naturales&tbm=bks |access-date=2023-01-25 |website=www.google.com}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rbtbAAAAMAAJ&q=felix+richert+the+art+of+playing+the+piano |title=Pauta |date=1984 |publisher=Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana |language=es}} Around that time he suffered an accident that impaired his use of his left hand, cutting short his brilliant musical career. He then dedicated himself to teaching and sponsoring talented pianists such as Ricardo Río Díaz and José Rubio Milán.

After the Mexican Revolution, he went into exile in the United States and Europe. He died in Paris, France on January 28, 1928.

In 1903 he married Hortensia Cámara Vales, also a renowned pianist and daughter of Raymundo Cámara Luján, the business magnate and head of the Cámara family.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bS49AQAAIAAJ&q=pablo+castellanos+le%C3%B3n+hortensia+c%C3%A1mara+vales |title=Heterofonía |date=2004 |language=es}}{{Cite book |last=Acosta |first=José María Valdés |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=98onAQAAMAAJ&q=hortensia+c%C3%A1mara+vales+raimundo+c%C3%A1mara+luj%C3%A1n |title=A través de las centurias: obra especial que contiene apuntes históricos, relatos genealógicos, reseñas biográficas, páginas literarias, antiguos documentos y retratos, etc., etc., etc |date=1923 |publisher=Talleres "Pluma y Lápiz" |language=es}} He was the brother-in-law of José María Pino Suárez, vice president of Mexico, and brother-in-law of Alfredo and Nicolás Cámara Vales, governor of Quintana Roo and Yucatán, respectively.{{Cite book |last=Camp |first=Roderic Ai |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cp50BQAAQBAJ&dq=raimundo+c%C3%A1mara+luj%C3%A1n+jos%C3%A9+mar%C3%ADa+pino+su%C3%A1rez&pg=PR46 |title=Mexican Political Biographies, 1884–1934 |date=2014-11-06 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-75603-8 |language=en}} His nephew by marriage was Alfredo Pino Cámara, associate justice of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.{{Cite web |last=Toraya |first=Betina González |title=María Casimira Cámara Vales, la estoica esposa de un vicepresidente de México |url=https://www.lajornadamaya.mx/opinion/184171/maria-casimira-camara-vales-la-estoica-esposa-un-vicepresidente-de-mexico |access-date=2023-01-25 |website=www.lajornadamaya.mx |language=en}} He was the granduncle of Ismael Moreno Pino, ambassador and undersecretary of Foreign Affairs{{Cite book |last=Cruz |first=Sergio Contreras |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iYxVAAAAMAAJ&q=ismael+moreno+pino+jos%C3%A9+mar%C3%ADa+pino+su%C3%A1rez |title=Discursos sobre la Revolución Mexicana: testimonios del 20 de noviembre |date=1987 |publisher=Partido Revolucionario Institucional, Comité Ejecutivo Nacional, Secretaría de Capacitación Política |isbn=978-968-483-010-3 |language=es}} and Fernando Cámara Barbachano, the noted social anthropologist.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-YcMAAAAYAAJ&q=hern%C3%A1n+c%C3%A1mara+vales |title=Who's Notable in Mexico |date=1972 |publisher=Who's Who in Mexico. |language=en}}

His only son was Pablo Castellanos Cámara, a distinguished pianist who graduated from the Paris and Berlin conservatories where he studied under Alfred Cortot and Edwin Fischer, respectively.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-YcMAAAAYAAJ&q=pablo+castellanos+le%C3%B3n+hortensia+c%C3%A1mara+vales |title=Who's Notable in Mexico |date=1972 |publisher=Who's Who in Mexico. |language=en}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castellanos Leon, Pablo}}

Category:Pino-Cámara family

Category:1860 births

Category:1928 deaths

Category:Mexican classical pianists

Category:Mexican conductors (music)

Category:Mexican music educators

Category:Mexican expatriates in France

Category:Mexican expatriates in the United States