Michele Esposito

Michele Esposito was an Italian composer, conductor and pianist who spent most of his professional life in Dublin, Ireland.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Michele Esposito.

From the period sources

Michele Esposito, born in Castellammare, near Naples, in 1855, began his musical training at the Naples Conservatorio at the age of ten, remaining there for eight years. During this time, he studied pianoforte playing under Cesi and composition under Serrao, with G. Martucci as a classmate, according to Grove’s Dictionary (1904). After a period in Paris from 1878 to 1882, Esposito was appointed professor of pianoforte playing at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, a post he still held as of 1904.

Esposito quickly became a significant figure in Dublin’s musical life, establishing a “fine school of pianoforte playing” and founding the Dublin Orchestral Society in 1899, which he conducted with success (Grove’s Dictionary, 1904, 1908, 1922; New Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians, 1924). He also gained repute as an ensemble player and gave pianoforte recitals under the Royal Dublin Society, for which he organized and performed in chamber music recitals for many years (Grove’s Dictionary, 1904). His compositions, many of which won prizes in Dublin, London, Paris, and Bologna (New Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians, 1924), include the cantata “Deirdre” (Feis Ceoil Prize, 1897), an “Irish” symphony (Feis Ceoil Prize, 1902), and the operetta “The Post-Bag,” produced in London in 1902 by the Irish Literary Society (Dictionary of Music, 1908; Grove’s Dictionary, 1904). Esposito also composed a second operetta, “The Tinker and the Fairy” (1910), an “Otello” overture, and various chamber works, including string quartets, violin sonatas, and a ‘cello sonata (Grove’s Dictionary, 1904; New Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians, 1924). He was awarded a Mus.D. by Trinity College, Dublin (New Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians, 1924).