(January 4, 1923 - January 14, 2014)

Flavio Testi was born in Florence in 1923. After initially taking private music lessons, he went on to study at the Conservatory of Turin.
Later he moved to Milan, where he took a degree in letters in 1951.
From 1952 to 1954 he worked at the publishing company Suvini  Zerboni, and from 1955 to 1965 at Casa Ricordi.
In 1972 he began teaching at the conservatories of Padua, Florence and Milan, where he remained up until 1987.
He served as artistic director of the Teatro Comunale in Florence from 1976 to 1977.

As a composer he enjoyed his first success as early as 1954 when the Teatro alla Scala presented his Crocifissione for men’s choir, strings, brass instruments, timpani and three pianos.
In addition to a large body of symphonic, chamber and vocal music, which often features in the programs of Italy’s most prestigious concert halls and festivals, Testi wrote many works for the theatre.
His operas include Il Furore di Oreste (1956, Festival delle Novità, Bergamo); La Celestina (1963, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino); L’Albergo dei poveri (1966, Piccola Scala, Milan); Il Sosia (1981, Piccola Scala, Milan) and Riccardo III, performed at the Teatro alla Scala in 1987 and at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 1988.

Testi wrote also several books on Medieval, Renaissance and 17th century Italian music. He conducted numerous seminars and contributed to conferences in Italy and abroad.

Flavio Testi died in Milan on 14 January 2014.