Claudio Monteverdi (15/05/1567 - 29/11/1643), an Italian composer, from Cremona. He began his musical education under Ingegneri as a boy chorister in the cathedral of Cremona. He was employed by Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, in about 1590. At the duke's death in 1613, Monteverdi became Maestro di Cappella at St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice. Monteverdi is remembered today primarily for his contributions to opera (including Orfeo and L'incoronazione di Poppea), and to the development of what later came to be known as the baroque style (his fifth book of madrigals being the first to employ basso continuo. Monteverdi also wrote masses, motets, vespers, and Magnificats.