Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713) is considered one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period in Italy. His music was key in the development of the modern genres of sonata and concerto, as well as the modern school of violin playing.
Corelli was born on 17 February 1653 in the small Romagna town of Fusignano, then in the diocese of Ferrara, in the Papal States. He initially studied music under a priest in the nearby town of Faenza, and then in Lugo, before In 1666 he moved to Bologna, a major centre of musical culture of the time. Reports by later sources link Corelli’s musical studies with several master violinists, including Bartolomeo Laurenti and Giovanni Battista Bassani. Chronicles of the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna indicate that Corelli was accepted as a member by 1670, at the exceptionally young age of seventeen.

He established himself in Rome and by 1679 had entered the service of Queen Christina of Sweden, who had taken up residence in Rome in 1655, after her abdication the year before, and had established there an academy of literati that later became the Arcadian Academy. In 1687, Corelli led the festival performances of music for Queen Christina of Sweden. He was also a favorite of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, grandnephew of another Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, who in 1689 became Pope Alexander VIII. In 1689, when Alexander VIII ascended the papal throne, his nephew, Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, appointed Corelli to conduct weekly concerts at his palace, where Corelli lived for the rest of his life. These concerts helped to establish Corelli as leading composer of his time.
From 1689 to 1690 he was in Modena and late visited Naples, at the invitation of the king, took place in the same year. The style of execution introduced by Corelli and preserved by his pupils, such as Francesco Geminiani, Pietro Locatelli, Pietro Castrucci, Francesco Gasparini, and others, was of vital importance for the development of violin playing. It has been said that the paths of all of the famous violinist-composers of 18th-century Italy led to Arcangelo Corelli, who was their “iconic point of reference”. Corelli died in Rome in possession of a fortune of 120,000 marks and a valuable collection of works of art and fine violins.
Six collections of concerti, sonatas and minor pieces for violin, with accompaniment of other instruments, besides several concerted pieces for strings, are authentically ascribed to Corelli. He is also noted for the Twelve Concerti Grossi, opus 6, which is arguably one of his most famous works.