SICARDO ISER, Ramona

This pianist, educator, and composer was born in San Juan in 1878. She was a prominent concert artist in Cuba and other countries. She began her training with her father and later took lessons from Ramón Sarriera in San Juan. She subsequently moved to Cuba, where she studied at the Hubert de Blanck Conservatory under the composer and pianist Ignacio Cervantes. The Royal Conservatory of Madrid was her next stop; Enrique Granados and Felipe Pedrell were among her teachers. Later, she studied in Paris with the renowned pianist Antoine de Marmontel.
Notable among her concerts were performances in Belgium and at the Teatro de la Comedia in Madrid. She also collaborated with violinists Rafael Díaz Albertini and Claudio José Domingo Brindis de Salas. She taught at the Madrid Conservatory and later returned to Cuba to teach at the Hubert de Blanck and Falcón conservatories. In 1917, she founded her own institution, the Sicardó Conservatory.
She wrote two treatises on harmony and music theory that were used for music education in Cuba. Her compositions include works for solo piano, piano and voice, and band. Her salon mazurka "Violeta" is held in the Hispanic Digital Library of the National Library of Spain.