Ottorino Respighi was a prominent Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist, recognized as one of the leading figures in early twentieth-century Italian music. Best known for his orchestral tone poems Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome, and Roman Festivals, Respighi also produced operas, ballets, choral works, chamber music, and transcriptions of earlier Italian music. Born in Bologna in 1879, he studied at the Liceo Musicale di Bologna and later with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in Russia. Respighi moved to Rome in 1913, where he taught composition and married singer Elsa Olivieri-Sangiacomo. After leaving his teaching post in 1923, he focused on composing and touring internationally. Respighi died in 1936, but his legacy endures, with his wife Elsa actively promoting his work for decades after his death. Many of his unfinished pieces were later completed by other musicians.