Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini

Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini studied organ, piano and composition with Riccardo Nielsen at the Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini in Bologna and at the Conservatory in Paris with Marcel Dupré.

Together with Marie-Claire Alain, Anton Heiller and Gustav Leonhardt, he made a considerable contribution to the rediscovery and promotion of historical performance practice on the Baroque organ and also the harpsichord.

This movement was and is concerned with the restoration of historical organs using old methods and techniques, reestablishing the original value of the instruments and enabling them to be appreciated.

The aims of the gift, to perpetuate, display and enlarge the collection are matched by study facilities in the library, guided tours through the collection, a continuing programme of restoration and conservation of the instruments in the workshop on the premises, conferences on related themes and concerts on the instruments.

He wrote numerous papers in the field of musicology, was a member of National Academy of Santa Cecilia and published critical editions of the works of Girolamo Frescobaldi, Domenico Zipoli and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.