Venice 1: The Barber’s Son: the Life of Silvestro Ganassi -a talk by Philip Thorby

The life of Silvestro Ganassi, the son of a barber from Bergamo, became the most famous musician in Venice as well as being a renowned painter. We will look at the Venice he knew, the Doges for whom he worked, his rich patrons and his family band. We will
see what his contemporaries wrote about him, both in biography and in fiction, and follow his life from his birth to immigrant
parents above a humble barber’s shop near the rialto to his death as a proud Venetian cittadino.

If you know Philip you will know his love of Venice, Silvestro Ganassi and Adriaan Willaert: Venice for its innate beauty and its unique place in the history of the renaissance, Ganassi as the most famous and revered Venetian musician of his day, and Willaert as the gentle Fleming who expressed the Venetian ideals in his music and his character. Philip is going to share this passion in two on-line lectures and two webinars in which you are welcome to take part with comments and questions. Each one will stand alone, but taken together they will present a fascinating view of Venice in the early 1500s, where the lives of Ganassi and Willaert intertwined with the aristocratic Pietro Bembo, the great printer Aldo Manutio and the incomparable verse of Francesco Petrarca.

Please book below.

The remaining three talks will be:
2. The New Prometheus of Celestial Harmony on Saturday 20th February 7pm
3. Bellezza e Bontà on Saturday 6th March 7pm
4. Musica Nova on Saturday 20th March 7pm