Antonio Braga

Antonio Braga trained at the Naples conservatory before a formative period in Paris studying with Darius Milhaud and Olivier Messiaen. He worked as composer, teacher and critic, writing for L'Osservatore Romano, teaching in Naples and Rome, and later living in San Francisco, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where he helped organise composition departments. His catalogue spans string quartets, symphonic and sacred music, and three operas, of which 1492 epopea lirica d'America, commissioned for the Columbus quincentenary, is the best known. The Dominican Republic honoured him with the Order of Christopher Columbus in the year of his death.