Daniele Maffeis was born on August 1, 1901 into a family of workers linked to the cotton mill established between Cene and Gazzaniga in 1874.
The industrial revolution, brought about by the presence of the cotton mill, saw Gazzaniga experience a sudden demographic and social growth change, leading to new cultural development.
In particular, a musical culture bloomed, providing fertile ground for the first experiences of the young Daniele, artist in the making.
Also his family environment, rich with music lovers and musicians, band members and teachers of instruments, offered stimuli to the child’s fine ear and allowed him to internalize every experience of sound.
After an initial and brief interlude of employment in a workshop, he had the opportunity to reveal his true vocation to a friend of a brother who took piano lessons with the musician, Pietro Zaninari.
This musician taught him the first rudiments of music, that Maffeis continued to hone with further studies.
But the greatest fortune was the discovery of the organ of the parish church, played by the Organ Master Alfonso Bettinelli, who soon became Maffeis’s first mentor.