Born in Padua Annibale Padovano (1527 – March 15, 1575) was an Italian composer and organist of the late Renaissance Venetian School. He was one of the earliest developers of the keyboard toccata.

Padovano first appears at St. Mark’s in Venice in 1552, when he was hired as first organist at an annual salary of 40 ducats.  St. Mark’s at this time began to employ a second organist (Claudio Merulo for the last eight years of Padovano’s tenure), which allowed two simultaneous, spatially separated organs to perform in the cathedral: this was a key development in music of the Venetian school, which was already using spatially separated choirs of voices.

In 1566, Padovano left Venice to go to the Habsburg court in Graz. Many Venetian musicians left their native area to seek their fortunes in Habsburg domains, which generally remained friendly to Venice. Padovano became the director of music at Graz in 1570, and died there five years later.