Giovanni Bernardino Nanino

Giovanni Bernardino Nanino (ca. 1560 – 1623) was an Italian composer, teacher and singing master of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras, and a leading member of the Roman School of composers. He was the younger brother of the somewhat more influential composer Giovanni Maria Nanino. Life Born in Vallerano, he was first a boy soprano in the local cathedral, just like his brother. His first post may have been as maestro di cappella at Santa Maria dei Monti in 1588, and he is known to have acquired the post of maestro di cappella at San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome in 1591, after his brother left to join the papal choir. The two brothers, however, were living together at this time in a house owned by the church, and spent a good deal of their time teaching choirboys. Following the appointment at San Luigi dei Francesi, he was associated with Cardinal Montalto, a wealthy and influential patron of art and music, and may have served as teacher, composer, and archivist for the Cardinal at his church, San Lorenzo in Damaso. Works Nanino’s music of the 1580s and 1590s is conservative in idiom, avoiding the experimental tendencies of his brother and Marenzio, preferring instead to inco