Marco Aurelio Zani de Ferranti

Marco Aurelio Zani de Ferranti (23 December 1801 – November 1878) was an Italian classical guitarist and composer. Biography Marco Aurelio Zani de Ferranti was born in Bologna on 23 December 1801. He began on the violin, but switched to guitar at age 16. In 1820, he moved to Paris and later to Saint Petersburg, before settling in Belgium. He later toured in France, England, Italy, and the United States. His range of works for solo guitar are extensive, and include a set of innovative and demanding Exercices Op. 49, and also a group of twenty-four Caprices Op.11 (probably inspired by the earlier work of his compatriot Paganini). Sets of variations were composed on themes by Weber Op.9 and Rossini Op.7, and are formally inventive as well as challengingly virtuosic. His original work Nuit de Walpurgis indicates a reference to a Faust opera on the frontispiece, but was more probably an original piece inspired by a work by Mendelssohn, which was in turn based on a poem, De Erste Walpugisnacht, by Goethe (as detailed in a Wikipedia article on the subject). His oeuvre is a testament to his originality as inspired by his contemporaries, rather than simply creating stock sets of variations