Radamés Gnattali (27 January 1906 – 3 February 1988) was a Brazilian composer of both classical and popular music, as well as a conductor, orchestrator, and arranger.Radamés Gnattali was born in Porto Alegre (the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil) on 27 January 1906. His parents were both musicians who had emigrated from Italy at the end of the 19th century. His mother, Adélia Fossati, was a pianist and music teacher. His father, Alessandro Gnattali, had been a carpenter in Italy, but after arriving in Brazil applied his passion for music to creating a new career for himself as a successful bassoonist and conductor (as a union leader with strong anarchist sympathies he also went on to organize a strike of the musicians' union in 1921). The couple had five children, three of whom, including Radamés, were named after characters from Verdi operas (the others being Aida and Ernani).