Born in 1883 in Sant Jaume Sesoliveres (Anoia), Josep Marimon was an inate musician, although without antecedents in his family. He apprenticed as a barber and at the age of 18 he enrolled at the Escola Municipal de Música de Barcelona. There, he studied with the professors Antoni Nicolau, Quintas and Lluís Millet. In 1906 the Quinteto Filarmónico was formed, of which he was the pianist-director.
In 1911 he moved to Argentina where he worked as a pianist for silent cinema. In 1913, he was finally able to settle in France where he broadened his studies. He became a member of the Orchestre Guitton, in Lyon. The beginning of World War I forced him to move back to Barelona where he received lessons from Enric Morera. By 1920 he was working professionally as a musician, composing and conducting the Llevant and Violeta Hortense choral societies. In January 1926 he married Teresa Cuch with whom he had three children: Salvador, Lluís and Josep. In 1928 he started conducting the El Roser choral society, which thereafter underwent renewal and improvement. In 1932 his third son was born, and two days later his wife died.
Josep Marimón
(1883 Sant Jaume Sesoliveres -
1953 Barcelona)
Composer, Conductor and Pianist.
In 1938 he was appointed Special Professor of Music Education of the School Groups in Barcelona, a post he was only able to keep until January 1939, due to the Civil War. He became organist of the church El Roser and he remarried with the organist Esmaragda Claverí, with whom he had his daughter Esmaragdeta. In 1945 he became the conductor of the children’s choir of the Casa Provincial de Caritat de Barcelona, but the next year he suffered a heart attack which forced him to take a break from his musical activities. In 1949 he won two prizes in the II Concurs Barcino de Música per a Cobla i Sardanes, with the sardanas M’estimes? and Meravella nostrada. Around 1950 he began, with great dedication, to write a practical Manual to guide composers of sardanas, which remained unfinished at his death in May 1953 in Barcelona.
