Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
1525–1594 · Italy · Reformation
Composer
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (Palestrina, Italy, c. 1525, 1525–1594): . One of the most gifted composers of his age, Palestrina influenced church music for many centuries. He began his musical training at the age of nine when he went to Rome to become a chorister in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiori. By 1544 he was a singing teacher and organist at the cathedral in his hometown of Palestrina and had begun composing. In 1551 the bishop of Palestrina became Pope Julius III, and he took the musician with him to Rome.