Bruno Maderna (april 21 1920 - november 13 1973) was an Italian-German conductor and composer. Biography Maderna was born in Venice. At the age of four he was taught violin in Chioggia, and his grandfather noticed the young boy was a genius; Madame de Polignac (a French princess and patron) paid his following studies, so at the age of eight he was able to conduct the orchestras of La Scala and Arena di Verona. From here, he started a career as a child prodigy, internationally known as "Brunetto" (Italian for Little Bruno). He protracted his studies in Milan (1935), Venice (1939) and in Rome (1940), where he finally took his degree in composition and musicology at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under the guide of Alessandro Bustini and Antonio Guarnieri. After his degree he studied also composition with Gian Francesco Malipiero and conducting with Hermann Scherchen. During World War II he joined the army,