Mauro Giuliani

Mauro Giuseppe Sergio Pantaleo Giuliani (27 July 1781 – 8 May 1829) was an Italian guitarist, cellist, singer, and composer. He was a leading guitar virtuoso of the early 19th century. One of his best known works is his Grand Overture, which has become standard early Romantic classical guitar repertoire. Biography Although born in Bisceglie, Giuliani’s centre of study was in Barletta, where he moved with his brother Nicola in the first years of his life. His first instrumental training was on the cello—an instrument which he never completely abandoned—and he may have also studied the violin. Subsequently, he devoted himself to the guitar, becoming a skilled performer on it in a short time. The names of his teachers are unknown. He married Maria Giuseppe del Monaco, and they had a child, Michael, born in Barletta in 1801. After that, he was possibly in Bologna and Trieste for a brief stay. By the summer of 1806, fresh from his studies of counterpoint, cello and guitar in Italy, he had moved to Vienna without his family. There, he began a relationship with the Viennese Anna Wiesenberger (1784–1817), with whom he had four daughters, Maria Willmuth (born 1808), Aloisia Willmuth (born 1