Pedro António Avondano was baptised in Lisbon on 16 April 1714 (and must therefore have been born a few days earlier), and died there in 1782. His father, Pietro Giorgio Avondano, originally from Genoa, had come to the Portuguese capital at the age of 19 and was employed as a first violinist in John V’s royal chapel; his mother had been born in the French city of Nantes. Pedro António followed in his father’s footsteps and between 1754 and 1782 worked as a violinist of the royal chapel. One of his duties was to write music for the ballets that accompanied opera performances, and in the second half of the 18th century he was Portugal’s leading composer of instrumental music, with keyboard pieces, chamber music – notably minuets – and orchestral works to his name.

The Brotherhood of St Cecilia was a religious organisation in Lisbon which promoted charity and fraternity among musicians, but also acted as a guild, protecting their professional interests: Avondano played a key role in its re-establishment in 1765. He also founded the ‘Assembly of Foreign Nations’, a society whose expatriate members met at his home twice weekly to play cards, dance and give concerts. He composed a large number of minuets for these dances, three collections of which were published in London, financed by the British community in Lisbon. In 1767 he became a Knight of the Order of Christ.

– Jorge Matta
English translation: Susannah Howe