Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525–1594) was an Italian composer, leading figure of the Roman School of Renaissance polyphony. Born near Rome in Palestrina, he served as organist at its cathedral from 1544 to 1551, when Pope Julius III made him maestro di cappella of the Cappella Giulia at St Peter's.

Dismissed in 1555 because, as a married layman, he could not serve in Paul IV's all-clerical choir, he directed music at St John Lateran and Santa Maria Maggiore before rejoining St Peter's in 1571.

By his death in 1594 he had written more than 105 masses and 250 motets. These works helped establish a model for later sacred counterpoint.