Italian classical composers

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (Italian: [dʒuˈzɛppe ˈverdi]; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the help of a local patron, Antonio Barezzi. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, and Gaetano Donizetti, whose works significantly influenced him.
In his early operas, Verdi demonstrated sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy. He also participated briefly as an elected politician. The chorus "Va, pensiero" from his early opera Nabucco (1842), and similar choruses in later operas, were much in the spirit of the unification movement, and the composer himself became esteemed as a representative of these ideals. An intensely private person, Verdi did not seek to ingratiate himself with popular movements. As he became professionally successful, he was able to reduce his operatic workload and sought to establish himself as a landowner in his native region. He surprised the musical world by returning, after his success with the opera Aida (1871), with three late masterpieces: his Requiem (1874), and the operas Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893).
His operas remain extremely popular, especially the three peaks of his 'middle period': Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata. The bicentenary of his birth in 2013 was widely celebrated in broadcasts and performances.

Michele Esposito (29 September 1855 – 19 November 1929) was an Italian composer, conductor and pianist who spent most of his professional life in Dublin, Ireland.

Antonino Gandolfo Brancaleone (24 April 1820, in Catania – 6 June 1888, in Catania) was an Italian composer. His masterpiece was Il Sultano (1851).

Filippo Gragnani (3 September 1768 – 28 July 1820) was an Italian guitarist and composer.
Gragnani was born in Livorno, the son of Antonio Gragnani. From a family of notable luthiers and musicians, Gragnani studied music in his home town with Giulio Maria Lucchesi. He began with the violin but later devoted himself to the guitar, becoming known as a virtuoso performer.

Gragnani first published works for guitar and chamber music in Milan around the beginning of the 19th century with the publishers Ricordi and Monzino. During these times he travelled to Germany and settled in Paris by 1810, a center of performance and music publishing. There he befriended and became a pupil of Ferdinando Carulli, another Italian virtuoso. Gragnani dedicated three of his guitar duets to him, and in turn Carulli dedicated some duets to Gragnani.Little is known about Gragnani after 1812. The "Registro dei Morti" (Register of Deaths) of the Church of St. Martino di Salviano in Livorno indicates he died on 28 July 1820.

Sir Francesco Paolo Tosti KCVO (9 April 1846, Ortona, Abruzzo – 2 December 1916, Rome) was an Italian composer and music teacher.

Pietro Grossi (15 April 1917, in Venice – 21 February 2002, in Florence) was an Italian composer pioneer of computer music, visual artist and hacker ahead of his time. He began experimenting with electronic techniques in Italy in the early sixties.