Johann Simon Mayr (1763-1845), Bavarian composer, is considered to be the most important composer working in Europe between the end of the 18th and the 19th century, before Rossini.
He carried out his whole artistic career in Italy. In 1806 he initiated and important and innovative didactic experience, the Lezioni Caritatevoli di Musica, whose most prominent alumnus was Gaetano Donizetti.