Giovanni Sgambati was born in Rome to an Italian father and an English mother. After the early loss of his father, he was educated in Trevi, Umbria, where he gained experience as a singer and conductor and composed some church music. In 1860, he moved back to Rome and began working to promote German music, which was not well known in Italy at the time. The support of Franz Liszt, who was in Rome from 1861, helped him greatly, and Sgambati played piano and conducted at concerts. Between 1864 and 1865, Sgambati composed several chamber works, including a quartet, two piano quintets, an octet, and an overture. He conducted Liszt's Dante Symphony in 1866 at the opening of the Sala di Dante in Rome. He also traveled to Munich with Liszt, where he first encountered the music of Richard Wagner. In 1870, his first album of songs was published, and his first symphony debuted in 1881 in Rome. During visits to England in 1882 and 1891, he performed his symphony and piano concerto, and his Sinfonia epitalamio was played at the Philharmonic. Sgambati's largest work was a Requiem Mass that was performed in Rome in 1901. He had many successful piano pieces and was active in promoting other composers, including Dante Alderighi. He conducted the first Italian performances of Beethoven's third and seventh symphonies and also introduced Italian audiences to Liszt's Dante Symphony and Christus oratorio. He passed away in Rome at the age of 73.