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Fortunato Chelleri (c.1690–1757) was a prominent member of the large diaspora of Italian musicians who played a leading role in northern European musical life in the eighteenth century. He was born in Parma into a family of Bavarian origin (his surname was in fact often rendered in the German manner as ‘Kelleri’). He received training in Parma and Piacenza in singing, the playing of the cello and keyboard instruments and composition. Chelleri came to notice early on as a moderately successful composer of operas, and while in Venice, in 1716–17, moved in Vivaldi’s orbit. In 1722 he was recruited by Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn, prince-bishop of Würzburg. When his employer died, in August 1724, Chelleri became temporarily unemployed; but in 1725 he joined the service of the landgrave Karl of Hesse-Kassel, in which he remained up to his death.
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