Giuseppe Torelli (1658–1709) was an Italian violist and violinist, pedagogu… Read Full Bio ↴Giuseppe Torelli (1658–1709) was an Italian violist and violinist, pedagogue, and composer, who ranks with Arcangelo Corelli among the developers of the Baroque concerto and concerto grosso.

Torelli was born on 22nd April 1658 in Verona. It is not known with whom he studied violin, though it has been speculated that he was a pupil of Giacomo Antonio Perti in Bologna. On 27th June 1684, at the age of twenty-six, he became a member of the Accademia Filarmonica as suonatore di violino. He directed the capella at the cathedral (San Petronio) of Bologna, 1686–1695. He was maestro di concerto to the court of Georg Friedrich II, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach in 1698-1699 where he presented an oratorio (December 1699) before returning again to Bologna (1701) to become a violinist in the cappella musicale at San Petronio.

He died on 8th February 1709 in Bologna, where his manuscripts are conserved in the San Petronio archives. Giuseppe's brother, Felice Torelli, was a Bolognese painter of modest reputation, who went on to be a founding member of the Accademia Clementina. The most notable amongst Giuseppe's many pupils was Francesco Manfredini.