José White Lafitte
José Silvestre White Lafitte, also known as Joseph White, was a Cuban-French violinist and composer.
Biography
His father, Don Carlos White, was Spanish and his mother was Afro-Cuban.After receiving early musical training from his father, who was an amateur violinist, José White gave his first concert in Matanzas on 21 March 1854. He was accompanied by the visiting American pianist-composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, "who encouraged him to pursue further violin studies in Paris and raised money for him to travel there."
José White studied at the Paris Conservatory, initially with Jean-Delphin Alard, between the years 1855 and 1871, winning the 1856 First Grand Prize. He became a French citizen in 1870.
In 1875, White went to Havana, then to Brazil, where he was director of the Imperial Conservatory in Rio de Janeiro and served as court musician for the Emperor Pedro II until 1889. He then returned to Paris and stayed there for the rest of his life. The 1737 "Swansong" Stradivarius was his instrument. He was highly praised by Rossini.