Henrique Oswald (1852-1931) was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His father was a Swiss-German immigrant and his mother was an Italian immigrant. The family moved to Sao Paulo in 1854 where he studied piano with Gabriel Guiraudon. He gave his first piano recital when he was twelve years old and at sixteen left for Europe to continue his studies. While in Europe he won a piano composition competition sponsored by Le Figaro inn 1902. He returned to Brazil and served as the director of the Instituto Nacional de Musica from 1903-1906.