Oboist and composer Gaetano Brandi was born in 1728. Little is known about his background or education. He was in London by 1790 when he married Rebecca Dando (also of Italian descent) at St Anne Church, Soho. He played oboe at the Handel Memorial Concerts at Westminster Abbey and the Pantheon in May and June 1784 and was active both as a composer and performer.
He compiled and edited the work The Man of Feeling, or The Gentlemans Musical Repository (for flute and violin; published in 1803 by Goulding & Phipps), containing assorted, mostly unattributed songs and short instrumental pieces (some possibly composed by himself). He taught the violin to his cousin Joseph Haydon Bourne Dando. Brandi died in May 1829 at St Pancras, Camden (aged 100/1). Many of this compositions and compilations are held at the British Library.