Ildebrando Pizzetti was born on September 20, 1880, in Parma. He received his first piano lessons from his father, Odoardo Pizzetti. From 1895 to 1901, he studied composition with Giovanni Tebaldini. Pizzetti became famous for his incidental music to Gabriele D'Annunzio's "La Nave," which premiered in 1908.
In the same year, 1908, he became a composition professor at the Florence Conservatory, which he headed from 1917. From 1924, he directed the Milan Conservatory and, from 1936, taught composition at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where he served as president from 1948 to 1951. As Respighi's successor, he was one of the most influential composition teachers of his time and shaped the musical landscape of Italy.
Together with Alfredo Casella and Gian Francesco Malipiero, Pizzetti is considered a founder of modern Italian music. His works include thirteen operas, incidental music for plays, a symphony (1940), various concertos for piano, harp, cello, and violin, chamber music compositions, a Requiem (1922), a De profundis (1938), as well as other choral works and songs. In addition to his compositional work, he wrote several treatises on music theory and composed the music for the fascist propaganda film "Scipione l'Africano." Pizzetti was a supporter of Italian fascism and signed the "Manifesto degli intellettuali fascisti" in 1925. He died on February 13, 1968, in Rome.