Luisa Gallo was a Uruguayan pianist and teacher. She was born in Montevideo on June 21, 1865. Her parents were Pedro Gallo and Matilde Poggio. She began her piano studies as a child. At the age of nine, she traveled to continue her studies at the Naples Conservatory, where she was taught by the Italian composer Beniamino Cesi. Prior to her trip, she performed at the Teatro Solís, in a farewell concert. In Naples she composed her first work, Fantasía sobre el Himno Nacional (Fantasy on the National Anthem). During this period, she made several concert performances. After one of them, which took place in 1877, the Gazzeta Musicale of Milan stated that “The musical sensibility and the precocious merits that she reveals at such a tender age, make us foresee [sic] that she will soon become an outstanding pianist. We heard her in a concert and the various pieces she performed highlighted her great ease and clear intelligence.” Her progress in her studies led her to receive the First Grand Prize at the Naples Conservatory in 1878, for which she gave a concert at the Teatro Príncipe Amadeo.

In 1895, Luisa and Camilo founded the Franz Liszt Conservatory of Music. Luisa played a fundamental role in this institution. Since its foundation, she took on a piano class which she held until a few years before she passed away. Thus, she was responsible for the training of numerous disciples, among them were the pianist Raúl Gandolfo and the composer Luis Pedro Mondino.

Furthermore, Luisa performed on numerous occasions at the evenings and concerts organized by the Conservatory of Music. From the beginning of the century, she often accompanied her children, who were beginning to perform their first concerts. For example, in 1904, the magazine Montevideo Musical reviewed a concert offered at the Conservatory of Music highlighting that “it was an charming party, since the entire program comprised the family of its director, Camilo Giucci.” Luisa also accompanied many of the foreign and national musicians who performed at the Conservatory, such as Andrés Gaos, Regina Pinkert and Virgilio Scarabelli, among others. She was also a member of the Sociedad Beethoven, an orchestra formed by the Spanish conductor Manuel Pérez Badía, which operated between 1897 and 1901. In this context, she performed on several occasions as a solo artist.

The correspondence between Luisa and her son, Camilo, while he was studying in Berlin, reveals some aspects of their family life and their intimate relationship with music. In this sense, Luisa wrote to Camilo: “I have some news that will please you: I study a lot and we play music on two pianos with Luisa [referring to Luisa Italina, her daughter] and your father. Today, which is a holiday, I played with your father and Luisa the Liszt concerto and I played the Padereski concerto.”

Luisa Gallo passed away on September 29, 1945. After she passed away, Uruguayan musicologist Lauro Ayestarán stated that “Her life, inspired from her earliest years in this sublime art of music, reaches us, thus becoming one of the pillars in the formation of the musical environment we enjoy today.”