Giuseppe Manzino was born in Savona on 23 September 1929. He began his musical studies at an early age under the guidance of his father, Giovanni, gaining his diploma in Pianoforte at the Conservatorio di Torino in 1950. He also attended the Istituto Magistrale, and on completing this school he had a meeting with a good friend of his father’s Virgilio Mortari, who after listening to some pieces he had written for piano advised him to begin studying composition without delay. He enrolled in what was then the Istituto Musicale Pareggiato “N. Paganini” in Genova and studied with Mario Barbieri, gaining his diploma in Composition in 1953. The following year he studied Instrumentation for Band with Giustino Di Marino in Genova, receiving his diploma in this discipline too in Torino.
He occasionally gave recitals, above all on the organ, and performed chamber music, but he dedicated himself above all to composition, obtaining recognition and awards in various national competitions. He wrote instrumental, vocal, chamber and symphonic music (including ‘Trittico savonese’, 1976) and also a one act opera (’Binario’, 1957) to a libretto by the Futurist poet and painter Vittorio Tommasini (Farfa). His Sonata (I) per organo received the gold medal at the XVIII Concorso Internazionale di Composizione “G.B. Viotti” in Vercelli in 1967, and the Corale variato for organ won a prize in the first “Concorso V. Carrara” in 1969. Compositions of his have been performed in Italy and in the United States, Latin America, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, as well as being broadcast on the radio in Spain and Italy. He had works published by Ricordi, Carrara, Carisch, Edipan, Bèrben and Forberg, while most of his output has appeared (or is being prepared for publication) in Ut Orpheus Edizioni, Bologna.
Giuseppe Manzino died in Savona on 4 July 1992.