Guitarist, pedagogue and Spanish composer. Emilio Pujol Vilarrubi was born on April 7 from 1886 in a small village called Granadella close to the town of Lerida, Spain. Emilio Pujol is considered the chief pedagogue of the guitar of the twentieth century.

At 5, he begins the study of the musical theory, followed by that of will bandura in 1897. Pujol continues his studies with Francisco Tárrega at the academy of Barcelona in 1901 while he is fifteen years old. This is the time when Miguel Llobet makes his beginnings as an artist in concert apart from Barcelona. Pujol tenderly remembered his first meeting with Tárrega, and in the biography that he dedicated to his Professor, he describes his "Mestre" in very fond terms. After the death of Tárrega in 1909, he will study the theory and the composition in Madrid with Agustín Champ (the pupil of Dionisio Aguado).

During the years 1914-1918 (First World War) he does not travel and remains in Catalonia. Emilio Pujol undertakes his first excursion to South America in 1918, starting from Buenos Aires. He marries in Paris Matilda Cuervas, a singer and Andalusian guitarist, and is devoted to musicological research in Paris. He studies musicology with Felipe Pedrell and then in Paris with Lionel of Laurencie. He then writes "the Guitar", one of the first encyclopedias of the history of the guitar. The Second World War prevents him from continuing his career of concert performer.

From 1935 to 1940, Pujol continues to give some concerts and conferences as well as continues his research in Spain, in London and Paris. In 1941, he is back in Spain, and publishes there a volume devoted to works of Luys de Narváez (in the collection "Monumentos of Musica española"). This first volume is followed by another one dedicated to: Alonso Mudarra (1949), then Enriquez Valderrábano (1963). Before his death, Pujol had begun a work on Orphenica Lyra (published in 1554) of Miguel Fuenllana.

In 1946, Pujol began guitar classes at the academy of music of Lisbon, where he will teach until 1969. For this period, he professed at the time of Master classes; in 1953 he was personally invited by Andres Segovia to give courses to the academic world of Chigiana. He is regularly invited as a jury for the contests of guitar. In 1963 he marries Maria Adelaïde Robert, a pianist and remarkable Portuguese singer who considerably helped him in his last years.

The summer 1965, Emilio Pujol launches his international courses of guitar, lute and Vihuela in the town of Lerida in Spain. This event became very popular and was followed by students and professors of the whole world. In 1972 the courses are moved to the village of Cervera.

Emilio Pujol composed 124 works and made more than 275 transcriptions and arrangements for guitar. He died on November 15, 1980.