1716-1740 - Little Stanmore (Middlesex)
Composer and harpsichordist Pietro Giuseppe Sandoni was born in Bologna on 1 August 1685. A pupil of Giovanni Bononcini, he was taught the harpsichord by Francesco Salardi. In 1698 he was organist at San Giacomo Maggiore in Bologna. He was admitted to the Accademia Filarmonica in 1700 as organist and two years later was promoted to the rank of composer. He toured the European capitals as a harpsichordist, before settling in London in 1716 where he joined Handel’s Royal Academy of Music at Cannons, Little Stanmore. In 1722 he was sent to Italy to engage Francesca Cuzzoni as ther leading soprano for the Academy. He accompanied her to London. The couple were married around 1725. He was involved in the controversy between Handel and Bononcini and later joined the latter’s Opera of the Nobility. By 1740 his was working as a harpsichordist and organist in Amsterdam. Having separated from his wife, he spent his last years in Bologna where he died in August 1748.
