Carlo Curti

Carlo Curti (6 May 1859 – 8 May 1922), also known as Carlos Curti, was an Italian musician, composer and bandleader. He moved to the United States during his mid-teen years, where he popularized the mandolin in American music. He is credited by musicologist Paul Sparks with starting a national "grass-roots mandolin orchestra craze" that lasted from 1880 until the 1920s.

He also contributed to Mexican society in 1884 by creating one of Mexico's oldest orchestras, the Mexican Typical Orchestra. The orchestra under his leadership represented Mexico at the New Orleans Cotton Exhibition.

As with his Spanish Students, Curti dressed his Mexican band in costumes, choosing the charro cowboy outfit. The patriotic value of having Mexico represented on the international stage gave a boost to mariachi bands (which had normally been repressed by social elites); the mariachis began using charro outfits as Curti's orchestra had done, expressing pride in being Mexican. Curti's Orquestra Típica Mexicana has been called the "predecessor of the Mariachi bands."

He was an orchestra leader, composer, educator at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Mexican National Conservatory of Music), xylophonist, violinist, mandolinist and author of a mandolin method. He directed the orchestra at the New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel in his later career.

Also known as a composer of zarzuelas and dance music, among his most noted tunes are "La Tipica" and "Flower of Mexico". His brother was harpist Giovanni (Juan or John) Curti, who also was a member of his orchestra.

Read more about this composer on Wikipedia.