Renowned Italian Music Publisher

It is with great sadness that Bärenreiter · Alkor bids farewell to Piero Ostali, owner and managing director of the music publishing house Casa Musicale Sonzogno, who died unexpectedly in Milan on 21 December 2025 at the age of 63.

Piero Ostali was born in Milan on 21 June 1962. After studying philosophy, he joined the long-established family business, which was founded in 1874 by Edoardo Sonzogno and taken over in 1923 by his grandfather, Piero Ostali Sr.

To this day, Casa Musicale Sonzogno stands for a unique repertoire, particularly works of Verismo and the Giovane Scuola Italiana. The publishing catalogue comprises thousands of titles, including important works by Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Puccini, Giordano and Cilea. In addition, since the early 1990s, Piero Ostali provided significant impulses for contemporary music and expanded the catalogue to include numerous renowned composers.

Alkor-Edition is responsible for the distribution of rental materials from the renowned Milanese publishing house in Germany and Austria since 2016. At the same time, Casa Musicale Sonzogno acts as the foreign representative for Bärenreiter’s rental materials in Italy.