Julio C. Arteaga

Music school After teaching music theory and music lessons out of his home for a while, in 1898 he co-founded the Asociación Musical de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Music Association). In that same year he and Felipe Gutiérrez Espinosa, another outstanding Puerto Rican composer, approached Governor Guy V. Henry with a proposal to establish a music institute in San Juan. While the project never materialized due to lack of interest in Governor Henry's administration, it gave birth to the idea of establishing music schools independent of the public instruction system.

Together with his wife, Nicolasa Torruellas, he founded the Arteaga Academy in Ponce, where they taught piano, music theory, organ, and voice, among others. Among his pupils was Monserrate Ferrer Otero ("Monsita Ferrer"), and Mercedes Arias. This last one, Mercedes Arias, was the failed love of Juan Morel Campos, the woman he loved but could never marry, and on whom Morel Campos found inspiration for several of his great masterpiece danzas, including "Maldito Amor" (Damned Love), "No Me Toques" (Don't Touch Me) and "Alma Sublime" (Sublime Soul). He returned to New York City where he had studied violin and works as organist at St. Patrick's Cathedral from 1920 to 1923. He died in New York City in 1923. There are two streets named after him. One in Urbanizacion Perla del Sur, in Ponce, and the other in Urbanización Villa Prades in San Juan.