Virgilio Mortari (December 6, 1902 – September 5, 1993) was an Italian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

and

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

Biography

Mortari was born in Passirana di Lainate, near

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

in 1902. He studied at the

Milan Conservatory The Milan Conservatory (''Conservatorio di Milano'') is a college of music in Milan, Italy. History The conservatory was established by a royal decree of 1807 in Milan, capital of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. It opened the following year ...

with Costante Adolfo Bossi and Ildebrando Pizzetti. He graduated from the Parma Conservatory in 1928, having studied

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

and composition. Already in 1924 he had won first prize with his composition ''Sonata per pianoforte, violino e violoncello'' at the Società Italiana di Musica Contemporanea competition. He was professor of composition at the

Venice Conservatory The Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello di Venezia is a conservatory in Venice, Italy named after composer Benedetto Marcello and established in 1876. History The conservatory was established in 1876 as ''Liceo e Società Musicale Benedett ...

from 1933 to 1940. From 1940 he was professor at the

Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia ( en, National Academy of St Cecilia) is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, founded by the papal bull ''Ratione congruit'', issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints pro ...

. He was artistic director of the

Accademia Filarmonica Romana The Accademia Filarmonica Romana is a musical institution based in Rome, Italy. It was established in 1821 by a group of upper class amateur musicians led by the Marquis Raffaele Muti Papazzurri (1801–1858) in order to encourage the performance o ...

from 1944 to 1946 and from 1955 to 1959 director of

Teatro La Fenice Teatro La Fenice (, "The Phoenix") is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th century, La Fenice ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. In 1963 he became vice president of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Double Bass compositions include: Concerto per Franco Petracchi by Virgilio Mortari. He won the Euterpe, Marzotto and Montaigne prizes.

External links

Biography
1902 births 1993 deaths 20th-century classical composers Italian classical composers Italian male classical composers Academic staff of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia 20th-century Italian composers 20th-century Italian male musicians {{italy-composer-stub