Ottorino Respighi is an Italian composer known for incorporating Russian orchestral color and the harmonic techniques of Richard Strauss into Italian music. He trained at the Liceo of Bologna and under Rimsky-Korsakov in St. Petersburg while serving as the first violist in the Opera Orchestra. Respighi gained a mastery of orchestral color and an interest in orchestral composition from his foreign masters. He became director of the conservatory in 1924 but resigned in 1926. Respighi also had a fascination for old Italian music and arranged two sets of Antique Dances and Arias transcribed for orchestra from lute pieces. His wife and pupil, Elsa Olivieri-Sangiacomo Respighi, was a singer and a composer of operas, choral and symphonic works, and songs.
