Ennio Bolognini (November 7, 1893—July 31, 1979) was an Argentine-born American cellist, guitarist, composer, conductor, professional boxer, pilot, and flight instructor.
His father, Egidio, a close friend of Arturo Toscanini (Ennio's godfather), was an Italian correspondent for the Paris-based newspaper Le Figaro and an amateur cellist.
[2] Ennio made his performance debut at the age of 12, and soon enrolled in the St. Cecilia Conservatory in Buenos Aires, where he studied with the Spanish cellist José García Jacot, Pablo Casals's teacher.
A charismatic man with a fiery temper, Bolognini became known for such eccentricities as bringing his dog to all Symphony rehearsals, and playing all the other instruments of the orchestra.
[8] One assemblage of amateur recordings, including most of the first Bach Suite, Kol Nidrei, and the Prize song from Die Meistersinger, taped surreptitiously by Bolognini's longtime accompanist Donald Kemp during concerts and rehearsals, was released as a CD in 1994.
His Rovatti cello was donated by his widow, the pianist and piano instructor Dorothy (Barber) Bolognini, to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where it remains in its permanent collection.
Though a significant historical instrument in its own right, the cello's particular interest lies in 51 ballpoint pen signatures of famous musicians and entertainers, including Toscanini, Casals, Gregor Piatigorsky, Emmanuel Feuermann, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern, Joseph Szigeti, Liberace, Jack Dempsey, Bruno Walter, Janos Starker, Eugene Ormandy, Ed Sullivan, and Miklós Rózsa, all obtained by Bolognini during his career.