Italian violinist and composer. Nothing is known of Montanari's early life until the first references to him as a violinist in Rome in 1692 at the age of sixteen continuing through 1737. From 1712 onwards he is documented as being in the orchestra of Cardinal Ottoboni, although he also served other families of the Roman nobility. He is thus found among the musicians who performed in Handel's La Resurrezione in 1708 in the Palazzo Ruspoli. On this occasion, and on others documented from 1694 onwards, he is referred to as ÔAntonio del sig.r card.le ColonnaÕ, which suggests that he had already been in the service of Cardinal Giovanni Paolo Colonna for some time. Between 1695 and 1708 he was in the service of Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili and of the Accademia del Disegno di S Luca.
Montanari had a considerable reputation during his lifetime. Some of the most famous Roman violinists of the time, such as Giuseppi Valentini, Giovanni Mossi, and Pietro Castrucci commonly played under his direction, and Johann Georg Pisendel, the most famous German violinist of the 18th Century, when he went to Rome in 1717 for a period of study, turned to Montanari to complete his own training./p>
see also: A Successor of Corelli: Antonio Montanari and his Sonatas by Michael Talbot