Francisco Inácio da Silveira de Sousa Pereira Forjaz de Lacerda was born on May 11, 1869, in the parish of Ribeira Seca, on the island of São Jorge, in the Azores.

Born into a noble family with several generations of amateur musicians, he revealed a remarkable inclination for music from an early age. His first music and piano lessons were given by his father, João Caetano Pereira de Sousa e Lacerda, when he was only four years old.

In 1886, he moved to the island of Terceira, where he attended the general secondary program at the Liceu of Angra do Heroísmo. During this period, he composed one of his earliest works, the mazurka Uma Garrafa de Cerveja (“A Bottle of Beer”), dedicated “to his friend Luiz da Costa.”

After completing secondary school, he moved to Porto to prepare for admission to the Medical School while simultaneously continuing his piano studies with António Maria Soller and attending courses in Fine Arts.

However, his passion for music proved stronger, leading him to abandon medical studies and settle in Lisbon. There, he enrolled at the Royal Conservatory, where he studied under José António Vieira, Freitas Gazul, Frederico Guimarães, among others. He completed the general piano course in 1891 with distinction. In the same year, he became a provisional professor at the Conservatory and, the following year, a permanent professor after competitive examinations, in which he competed against Francisco Bahia and Eugénio Cândido da Costa.

The year 1895 marked the beginning of Francisco de Lacerda’s international career. In that year, he traveled to Paris as a scholarship holder of the Crown, having been the sole candidate for the first official music scholarship in Portugal. In the French capital, he first attended the Conservatory, where he studied Harmony with Émile Pessard, Music History with Bourgault-Ducoudray, Counterpoint with Libert, Composition and Organ with Widor, among others.

He later enrolled at the newly founded Schola Cantorum, where he continued his studies in Organ with Guilmant, Composition and Orchestral Conducting with Vincent d’Indy, and Early Music with Charles Bordes. It was during this period that Vincent d’Indy selected him as his substitute in the orchestral conducting class, having recognized in his student exceptional qualities as a conductor.

During his time in France, he was influenced by the French musical school associated with César Franck, Vincent d’Indy, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Ravel, Francis Poulenc, and Paul Dukas. These influences would later be clearly reflected in both his compositions and his conducting style.