Born in Spain and receiving an appointment to the service of Pedro Fernandez de Cadiz y Andrade, Torrejon y Velasco followed his patron to the New World where he became the choir master at the Cathedral in Lima. His opinion was so highly respected that musical decisions were not made in other locales without his council. The majority of the music he composed were vocal compositions dominated by villancicos and an opera, "La purpura de la rosa." This is important as the earliest surviving opera from the New World. Torrejon y Velasco's polychoral technique was lauded and his villancicos were popular in places as far removed as Guatemala. ~ Keith Johnson