Born in Portugal he studied with Antònio Ferro in Portalegre Cathedral, where he was as a choirboy. Nothing else is known of him until 1601, when he figures as a Chapelmaster in the Capilla del Salvador in Úbeda (Jaén). In 1603 he secured a post as chapelmaster at the Capilla Real in Granada. He composed vernacular music which is now lost and, according to Stevenson (2001): "His surviving music (in E-GRcr) includes four penitential motets (Domine nos secundum peccata nostra, In jejunio et fletu and Adjuva nos for four voices and Adjuva nos for three), two four-part Passions —one for Palm Sunday (St Matthew), the other for Good Friday (St John)— and two incomplete Lamentations verses, Quomodo sedet sola civitas and Non est inventus similis illi, both for four voices".

Manuel Avilez, also known as "Lusitano" and author of the compositions in E-GRcr 1 and E-GRcr 6, should not be confused with the more famous theorist and composer Vicente Lusitano, active in Italy.