Vincenzo Albrici

Vincenzo Albrici came from an Italian family with many musicians. He was a composer and keyboard player who studied with the "maestro di cappella" Carissimi and later became organist at the German College in Rome. This was succeeded by an appointment as "maestro di cappella" for himself in Rome at the Chiesa Nuova. He served in various posts in Sweden, and Germany and visited France and England as well. Albrici's was quite the peripatetic life-style. He earned the position of "Director of Italian Musicians" at the court in Dresden where he eventually converted to Protestantism. Most of the works of Albrici's that survive are Latin motets and a cantata entitled "Su l'arenoso lido" which is a sorrowful piece inspired by the story of Dido. Sources claim that Albrici was a better keyboard player (organs and harpsichords) than he was a composer and had the ability to play quick passages with a felicity of pharse. ~ Keith Johnson