Giovanni Maria Nanino

Giovanni Maria Nanino (also Nanini; 1543 or 1544 – 11 March 1607) was an Italian composer and teacher of the late Renaissance.

He was a member of the Roman School of composers, and was the most influential music teacher in Rome in the late 16th century.

During the 1590s he was renowned as a teacher; he and his brother established what is thought to be the first Italian-run public music school in Rome[1] and many future composers studied with him and sang in his choirs, including Felice Anerio, Antonio Brunelli, Antonio Cifra and Gregorio Allegri (composer of the famous Miserere).

Almost no collections of madrigals were published in Rome which did not include at least one contribution by Nanino, often in the most prominent position in the book—even ahead of Palestrina.

In addition to his famous madrigals, he wrote motets, settings of the Lamentations, canons, and sacred songs.