His most notable work is the music of the Ecuadorian National Anthem "Salve, Oh Patria" with the text written by Juan León Mera.

In 1837 Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria awarded him for the composition of some arrangements he had made for the Spanish opera singer Maria Malibrán.

He then worked as a choirmaster in Chile, and toured several South American countries with an opera company.

In 1841 he settled in Guayaquil, Ecuador, taking up residence in Las Peñas neighborhood, where years before Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin met to discuss the future of South American independence.

In 1870, the Ecuadorian President Gabriel García Moreno hired him to establish and be the first director of the National Conservatory in Quito.