Domenico Brescia

Born in 1866, Brescia studied music in the Milan and Bologna conservatories. He left Italy to arrive in Chile in 1892 as choir director of an opera company. Several years after becoming director of the Ecuadorian conservatory, Brescia and that institution were subjected to four years of insults and defamation, which, with a change of government in 1911, resulted in the termination of Brescia’s contract. He settled in San Francisco, where he became professor of composition at Mills College, a position he held until his death in 1939. Brescia is the author of four operas, two symphonies and many shorter works, especially chamber music. He was a longtime member of the Bohemian Club, for which he composed the music for two Grove plays.

Although several of his works were transcribed by the Works Project Administration (WPA) during the 1930s, the vast majority of Brescia’s compositions have yet to be published in any form. For this reason, from his extensive catalog we have selected to meticulously edit, and to make available for the first time, a number of his heretofore unedited works from the period 1892-1928, which represent a geographical, chronological or stylistic relationship to his nearly twenty years of professional experience as a music administrator, educator and composer in Latin America.

Maestro Brescia’s Compositions