Giuseppe Donati

Who was Giuseppe Donati?

Giuseppe Donati was the inventor of the classical ocarina, a ceramic wind instrument based on the principle of a Helmholtz resonator.

Donati was born in Budrio. Legend has it that he created his first "little goose" in 1853, aged 17, whilst still working as a brickmaker. His first ocarina-making workshop was in his hometown of Budrio. When he moved to larger premises in Bologna in 1878, a fellow musician of the Gruppo Ocarinistico, Cesare Vicinelli, continued the Budrio workshop. He died, aged 88, in Milan.