Heitor Villa-Lobos was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1887, and has, by virtue of both his immense output and colorful and accessible musical language, become the most celebrated Brazilian composer of all time. His work not only richly typifies the diverse and kaleidoscopic Brazilian scene butalso, in its abundance, originality, and vitality, provided the key which unlocked Brazilian art music once and for all from the shackles of European late-Romanticism.