Mauro Giuliani

Although Italian by birth, guitarist Mauro Giuliani spent much of his career in Vienna, where he became known as the instrument’s foremost performer and composer. Born near Bari in 1781, he studied the cello before switching to the six-string guitar. He arrived in Vienna in 1806 and became leader of the city’s guitar school, teaching, performing and composing prolifically, and becoming renowned for the expressive, vocal quality of his playing. Giuliani composed three concertos and much chamber music for his instrument, and his solo works, including sonatas, fantasias, transcriptions and numerous sets of variations, are among the principal works of the 19th-century guitar repertoire. Among them are a number of didactic works, many of which continue to be used today in guitar teaching. He also played cello in the first performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in 1813. Later he returned to Italy and became a popular performer at the Habsburg court in Naples, where he died in 1829.