Francesco Molino

Who would have thought you could play classical music on a ukulele? But you can! Francesco Molino was an Italian musician and composer born at Ivrea near Turin on 4 June 1768. At the age of fifteen in 1783 he enrolled in the band of the Piedmont Regiment as an oboist a post from which he resigned in 1793. He often traveled to Spain to give concerts. From 1786 to 1789 he played the viola in the orchestra of the Teatro Regio in Turin and from 1814 to 1818 he was employed in the royal chapel in Turin. By 1817 he had published two guitar methods. Then in about 1820 he moved to Paris where he was very active as a teacher and composer until his death there in 1847. His works were largely neglected until the twentieth century when many of them were republished. Have fun!