Pianist, Educator, Composer. He was a major figure in Cuba's classical music scene for nearly 50 years. De Blanck was born in Utrecht, Holland, into a musical family. He initially studied at the Royal Conservatory in Liege, Belgium (1865 to 1867), taking first prize in piano, and at age 14 gave a command performance for King Leopold II in Brussels. The monarch awarded him a scholarship to the Cologne Conservatory, where he studied composition with Ferdinand Hiller (1871 to 1873) before making his debut as a concert pianist in St. Petersburg, Russia. From 1875 to 1880 he toured internationally as a chamber duo with another prodigy, violinist Eugene Maurice Dengremont; this led him to the United States and an appointment as professor of piano at the New York School of Music in 1881. That same year he married a Cuban national, and after visiting Havana he decided to settle there in 1883. Eager to establish a classical music culture where little existed, he founded the Hubert De Blanck Conservatory in Havana (1885); under his leadership it evolved into Cuba's National Conservatory of Music, with a dozen satellite schools to promote music appreciation throughout the country. De Blanck was sympathetic to the Cuban independence movement and in 1896 he was arrested and deported for belonging to Havana's Revolutionary Committee. He returned after the Spanish-American War, becoming a Cuban citizen in 1901. His most ambitious composition, the opera "Patria" (1906), celebrated Cuba's independence from Spain. Other opuses are the operas "Actea" and "Icaona", operettas, songs, and several solo piano pieces, including the "Capriccio Cubano". His youngest daughter, Olga De Blanck Martín, was also a distinguished musician. She assumed directorship of the National Conservatory in 1955.