Mateo Antonio Perez de Albeniz was born it is thought 1755 in the Basque region of Spain. Little if anything is known of Mateo early life and what influenced him, some think he may have been a boy chorister at his local church which first introduce him to sacred music. Mateo was a excellent keyboard player and trained in theory and composition. He obtained posts as maestro at some of Spains major churches, such as San Sebastian, then in the late 1790's he was maestro in Logrono, he then spent arouund 30 years at Santa María , it is thought that through ill health he retired from the post in around 1829. He was a great admirer of the music of Mozart and Haydn and taught their music stlyes to his students.