Pietro Antonio Locatelli (3 September 1695 – 30 March 1764) was an Italian composer and violinist.

Locatelli was born in Bergamo, Italy. A child prodigy on the violin, he was sent to study in Rome under the direction of Arcangelo Corelli.
Little is known of his subsequent activities except that he finally settled in Amsterdam in 1729, where he died on 30 March 1764.

Locatelli's works are mainly for the violin, an instrument on which he was a virtuoso.

His most significant publication is probably L'arte del violino, opus 3. Printed in Amsterdam in 1733, this was one of the most influential musical publications of the early eighteenth century. It is a collection of twelve concertos for solo violin, strings and basso continuo, with a 'capriccio' for unaccompanied violin inserted into the first and last movements of each concerto as a sort of cadenza.

Locatelli also wrote violin sonatas, a cello sonata, trio sonatas, concerti grossi and a set of flute sonatas (his opus 2). His early works show the influence of Arcangelo Corelli, while later pieces are closer to Antonio Vivaldi in style.


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Shahrdad Rohani (Persian: شهرداد روحانی) is an Iranian composer, violinist/pianist, and conductor.
His style is contemporary and he is well known for composing and conducting classical, film as well as pop music. One of such projects was arranging and conducting the Yanni Live at the Acropolis concert, an open-air concert with the London Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra in the Parthenon, Athens, Greece.
This concert was acclaimed by both critics and audience and became the most widely viewed program ever shown on Public Television in United States and is the second best-selling music video of all time.

Being educated since childhood at very prestigious schools has made him into a grand maestro, winning awards in various countries and composing in varied styles. He studied at the Academy and Conservatories of Music in Vienna, Austria, and received several important scholarships and awards both in Europe and United States. These include the A.K.M Scholarship, Vienna, Austria, and the ASCAP Scholarship, Los Angeles, California.

Mr. Rohani is the music director and conductor of the COTA symphony orchestra in Los Angeles. He has appeared as a guest conductor with a number of prestigious orchestras including London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Zagreb Philharmonic, the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras and many others...

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Antonio Francisco Javier José Soler Ramos, usually known as Padre Antonio Soler, known in Catalan as Antoni Soler i Ramos (baptized 3 December 1729, died 20 December 1783) was a Spanish Catalan composer whose works span the late Baroque and early Classical music eras. He is best known for his keyboard sonatas, an important contribution to the harpsichord, fortepiano and organ repertoire.

Soler was born in Olot (Catalonia, Spain) in the historical County of Besalú. In 1736, when he was six, he entered the Escolania of the Monastery of Montserrat where he studied music with the resident maestro Benito Esteve and organist Benito Valls.
In 1744 he was appointed organist at the Cathedral of La Seu d'Urgell and appointed as a subdeacon at the same time. Later in life, he held posts as chapel master in Lleida and at the Royal Court in El Escorial...


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Luigi Rodolfo Boccherini (Lucca, Italy, February 19, 1743 – Madrid, Spain, May 28, 1805) was an Italian classical era composer and cellist whose music retained a courtly and galante style while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers.
Boccherini is most widely known for one particular minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 11, No. 5 (G 275), and the Cello Concerto in B flat major (G 482). The latter work was long known in the heavily altered version by German cellist and prolific arranger Friedrich Grützmacher, but has recently been restored to its original version. Boccherini composed several guitar quintets including the "Fandango" which was influenced by Spanish music.

Boccherini was born in Lucca, Italy, into a musical family. At a young age he was sent by his father, a cellist and double bass player, to study in Rome. In 1757 they both went to Vienna where they were employed by the court as musicians in the Burgtheater. In 1761 Boccherini went to Madrid, where he was employed by Infante Luis Antonio of Spain, younger brother of King Charles III.

There he flourished under royal patronage, until one day when the King expressed his disapproval at a passage in a new trio, and ordered Boccherini to change it. The composer, no doubt irritated with this intrusion into his art, doubled the passage instead, leading to his immediate dismissal. Then he accompanied Don Luis to Arenas de San Pedro, a little town at the Gredos mountains; there and in the closest town of Candeleda, Boccherini wrote many of his most brilliant works...

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