Paolo Tosti

Sir Francesco Paolo Tosti KCVO (9 April 1846, Ortona, Abruzzo – 2 December 1916, Rome) was an Italian composer and music teacher.

Francesco Paolo Tosti received most of his music education in his native Ortona, Italy, as well as the conservatory in Naples.

Tosti began his music education at the Royal College of San Pietro a Majella at the age of eleven.

[1] He studied violin and composition with Saverio Mercadante, who became so impressed with Tosti that he appointed him a student teacher, which afforded the young man a meagre salary of sixty francs a month.

[2] Once recovered from his illness, Tosti moved to Ancona, where his poverty was such that for weeks at a time he subsisted on nothing but oranges and stale bread.

Sgambati arranged for Tosti to give a concert at the Sala Dante at which the Princess Margherita of Savoy (who later became Queen of Italy) was present.

Tosti was a staple in fashionable drawing rooms and salons, and in 1880, he was made singing master to the Royal Family.