Alfredo Casella
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Alfredo Casella, (born in Torino July 25 1883, died Rome March 5 1947), was an Italian composer.
He entered the conservatory in Paris in 1896 to study piano under Louis Diémer and composition under Gabriel Fauré. Back in Italy during the World War I he began teaching piano at the Accademi di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
In 1923, together with Gabriele D'Annunzio and Gian Francesco Malipiero from Venice, he founded an association to promote the spread of modern italian music, the "Corporation of the New Music".
The resurrection of Vivaldi's works in the 20th century is mostly thanks to the efforts of Alfredo Casella, who in 1939, organised the now historic Vivaldi Week. Since then, Vivaldi's compositions have enjoyed almost universal success, and the advent of historically informed performance has all but catapulted him to stardom once again. In 1947, the Venetian businessman Antonio Fanna founded the Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi, with the composer Gian Francesco Malipiero as its artistic director, with the purpose of promoting Vivaldi's music and putting out new editions of his works.
The generation of the '80 (Alfano, Casella, Malipiero, Pizzetti, Respighi) is really an important step, going to heavily influence the following years, also with important interactions in literature and painting. Casella, who was especially passionate about painting, was therefore able to accumulate an important collection of art.Template:Composer-stub