About Felice Aniero

Anerio was born in Rome and lived his entire life there. He sang as a treble at the Julian Chapel (the Cappella Giulia) from 1568 until
1577 (by which time he was an alto) and then he sang at another church until 1580. Around this time, he began to compose, especially
madrigals; this was one of the few periods in his life during which he wrote secular music. Likely he was influenced by Luca Marenzio,
who was hugely popular at the time and who was in Rome at the same time Anerio began composing. By 1584 Anerio had been appointed
maestro di cappella at the Collegio degli Inglesi; he also seems to have been the choirmaster at another society of Rome's leading
musicians called the vertuosa Compagnia de i Musici di Roma. These positions must have given him considerable opportunity to exercise
his compositional talents, for he had already written the music, songs, madrigals, and choruses for an Italian Passion Play by this time. In
1594, he replaced Palestrina as the official composer to the papal choir, which was the most prominent position in Rome for a composer.