Antonio Scontrino

His father, a carpenter, was an ardent music lover and amateur instrument maker. Antonio joined the family orchestra at the age of seven, playing on a cello adapted to serve as a double bass. From 1861 to 1870 he studied at the Palermo Conservatory where his teachers included Luigi Alfano (harmony) and Pietro Platania (counterpoint and composition). He then toured as a double bass virtuoso throughout southern Italy. In 1871 he obtained the libretto of an opera from Leopoldo Marenco, but the work, Matelda, was not produced until 1879.

Aided by a grant from the municipality and province of Trapani, Scontrino went in 1871 to Munich, where for two years he studied German music. In 1874 he went to England as a member of Mapleson’s orchestra and afterwards settled in Milan as a teacher of instrumental, vocal and theoretical music. He was appointed professor of counterpoint and composition at the Palermo Conservatory in 1891, and the following year gained a similar professorship at the Istituto Musicale in Florence.