Guido Agosti was an Italian pianist and music educator, born in Forlì on August 11, 1901. He studied in Bologna with Ferruccio Busoni, Bruno Mugellini, and Filippo Ivaldi, then studied composition with Giacomo Benvenuti.
Agosti soon gave up a concert career because of nervous problems and turned mainly to teaching. He taught at conservatories in Venice, Rome, and Milan, as well as at the Chigiana Academy, the Weimar Academy of Music, and the Sibelius Academy. His students included Maria Tipo, Ursula Oppens, Hamish Milne, Jonty Solomon, Kun-Woo Paik, and Emmanuel Krasovsky.
In 1967, Agosti resumed performing, particularly with cellist Enrico Mainardi, flutist Severino Gazzelloni, and the Rome Quartet. He recorded Beethoven sonatas and Debussy preludes. In 1934, he made piano transcriptions of several pieces from Igor Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird. Ernest Bloch wrote a piano sonata for him in 1935.
Agosti was a member of the Royal Academy in London. In 1976, he became vice president of the National Academy of St Cecilia in Rome, a position he held until his death. In 1977, the city of Forlì awarded him a gold medal for his artistic contribution to cultural development. He died in Milan on June 2, 1989.