Walter Piston

Walter Hamor Piston Jr. (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976) was an American composer. He was born in Rockland, Maine. His father's father, the sailor Antonio Pistone changed his name to Anthony Piston when he came to America from Genoa, Italy. In 1905, Walter Piston Sr. and his family moved to Boston. Walter Jr. trained as an engineer at the Mechanical Arts High School in Boston, but he was artistically inclined and upon graduating from there in 1912