Biography
Francesco Mander was the only son of Pietro Mander, a film producer and owner of Mander Film, and Lucia Mercadante. While from his father he inherited his love for literature, it was his mother who discovered her son's passion for music, while still at a very tender age. Not so amazing, the fact that it was his mother to discover this, since she descends in a direct line from Francesco Saverio Raffaele Mercadante (1795–1870), in his time a famous opera composer, though today completely forgotten.
Only a little older, he accompanied his parents to concerts held in the most famous concert hall in Rome at the time, the Augusteo.
After the family moved to Milan Francesco Mander continued his piano study and also took up the cello. His teacher was Enzo Martinenghi, the solo cellist of the Teatro alla Scala orchestra, then under the baton of Arturo Toscanini.
Back in Rome he went to university (literature) and studied composition with Alfredo Casella and Cesare Dobici, obtaining his degree in composition at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome in only four years instead of the usual ten years required.
He studied conducting with Antonio Guarnieri in Siena, a city where not many years later he would teach himself, having amongst his pupils musicians like Zubin Mehta.
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