As the son of a musician who served in Germanic courts, it followed that Neri would follow a similar path. Massimiliano was the organist at St. Mark's cathedral in Venice for twenty years (1644-1664) while also serving as the organist of SS Giovanni and Paolo from '44-46 and '57-64. Given a position of nobility by the Hapsburg court, Neri served as the master of music for an orphanage in Venice and by the end of 1664 was serving as the Kapellmeister in Cologne. Musically, Neri was an instrumentalist who composed sonatas for the cornet, recorder, bassoon, trombone, and theorbos. Some of his works were composed for instrumental ensembles and most accentuated fugues, virtuoso phrases, elegant adagios, polychoral techniques, repetitive passages and concertino groupings. Most of his works are lost so the best thing that can be stated about Neri's contribution is that he was a definitive forerunner in the development of the concerto. ~ Keith Johnson, Rovi