Francisca Edwiges Neves Gonzaga, famously known as Chiquinha Gonzaga (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʃiˈkiɲɐ ɡõˈzaɡɐ]; October 17, 1847, Rio de Janeiro – February 28, 1935, Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian composer, pianist and the first woman conductor in Brazil. Chiquinha Gonzaga was the first pianist of "choro" and author of the first carnival march, "Ó Abre Alas "(1899). Her plays and operettas, such as Forrobodó and Jurití, were a great success with the public because they used elements of Brazilian popular culture of the time. In the Passeio Público of Rio de Janeiro, there is a herm in her honor by the sculptor Honorius Peçanha. In May 2012, it was enacted the law 12624 establishing the National Day of Brazilian Popular Music, celebrated on the day of her birthday. She died beside João Batista Fernandes, his best friend, partner and faithful companion, her great love, in 1935, during the beginning of a new Carnival. She was buried in the cemetery of São Francisco de Paula, district of Catumbi, in Rio de Janeiro.
She was the composer of the famous operetta partition "Juriti" with Viriato Corrêa, in 1919. In 1934, at age 87, she wrote her last composition, the opera "Maria". Chiquinha was also the founder of the Brazilian Society of Theater Authors. At the end of her life, she composed music for 77 theater plays and was the author of about two thousand compositions in different genres: waltzes, polkas, tangos, lundus, maxixes, Fado, quadrilles, mazurkas, Choros and serenades. Due her maternal origins and the many injustices experienced during her life, Chiquinha was a very active citizen and involved in all kinds of social movements that took place during her generation in Brazil, such as the abolition of slavery, with the Law Áurea of 1888 and the proclamation of the Republic in 1889. Many times, she has a leading position for the suffragist movement.
