A
Basque composer, born in Bilbo (
Bilbao) on 27 January 1806, and died not yet twenty on 17 January 1826, in Paris, where he had been studying at the
Conservatoire since 1821, and had been teaching as a
professor since the age of 18. He was an extraordinary talent, known as the Spanish
Mozart. Arriaga's cause of death is uncertain: possibly
tuberculosis. He is buried in a communal grave at
Montmartre.
He composed an opera Los Esclavos Felices (The Happy Slaves) at the age of 13, and also wrote a symphony in D major, three quartets (all in 1824), and some cantatas and caprices.
His full name was Juan Crisóstomo Antonio Arriaga y Balzola. The name Arriaga is from the Basque words arri 'stone' and aga 'place'. The main theatre in Bilbo is named after Arriaga. An Arriaga String Quartet was formed in Belgium in 1980.