Barbara Rettagliati (1964, Piacenza, Italy) undertook her studies under the guidance of Edda Ponti and Gianni Possio, then completed her piano studies with Mario Patuzzi and graduated in 1985 while she got the diploma in Composition with Bruno Bettinelli in 1990. During her studies she has got several competition awards (Stresa, Livorno, Bardolino, Milan, Albenga, Turin, Rome). As a pianist she has performed in chamber music ensembles and collaborated as an accompanist with the Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana and Gruppo Ciampi; besides she has performed contemporary music in recording sessions for Millenio, Stradivarius and Rugginenti Studios. Some of her compositions have been published by Rugginenti and SME/EMS Edition Musicale Suisse.
At the age of eighteen she has written incidental music for a theatre play by Ghelderode that was performed at the Teatro Municipale in Piacenza and at the Teatro Rossini in Pesaro.
Her compositions have been performed in Italy by several ensembles, by Orchestra Milano Classica, Orchestra Filarmonica Italia and Orchestra Arturo Toscanini, and also at various festivals and concert halls in USA, Germany, France, Rumania, Switzerland, Brasil, Spain, South Corea, Argentina and China. In 1999 she won the national competition for professors in Composition and since then she has been teaching at State Conservatories such as the Conservatory " Bellini" of Music in Palermo (1999/2007) and at the Conservatory "Cherubini" in Florence (since 2008). She is married with the flutist Alfred Rutz. Since 2008 she lives in Switzerland.