Albéniz started to learn the piano when he was three. His elder sister taught him. He was a child prodigy who first performed at the age of four. When he was seven he passed the entrance examination for piano at the Paris Conservatoire, but he was not given a place because they thought he was too young. A year later his father lost his job, so he took his two children on tour so that they could give concerts and earn some money. In 1869 the family moved to Madrid, but Albéniz had an unsettled childhood. He twice ran away from home, giving concerts in various places and even escaping as a stowaway to South America where he visited Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico and then the USA. He returned to Spain in 1873. By the age of fifteen, he had already given concerts all over the world. After a short stay at the Leipzig Conservatory, in 1876 he went to study in Brussels. In 1880, he went to Budapest wanting to study with Franz Liszt, but Liszt was not there.