JUSTIZ, Adela Munoz Del Monte Y

Adela Muñoz del Monte y Justiz was a Cuban-born composer, pianist, and singer active in the prominent musical and literary salons of 19th-century Madrid. Born in Santiago de Cuba into an intellectual family—as the daughter of the Dominican poet, jurist, and statesman Francisco Muñoz del Monte and María Caridad Justiz y Valiente—she began her early musical education in Cuba studying piano under Joan Casamitjana Alsina.

Following her family's relocation to Spain, she advanced her studies in Madrid with several of the era’s foremost masters, including piano with Manuel Mendizábal and Johann Peter Pixis, alongside voice and harmony under composer and musicologist Baltasar Saldoni. Praised in contemporary accounts for her virtuosity, expressive mezzo-soprano voice, and compositional skill, she produced works for piano and voice tailored for salon performance before her career was cut short by her early death at the age of twenty-five.