According to his contemporary Giuseppe Bresciani (1599-1670), Benedetto Pallavicino was an organist at various churches in the province of Cremona in his youth; he may have studied there with Marc'Antonio Ingegneri. He dedicated his first publication, a book of four-part madrigals, to the ''Accademia Filarmonica di Verona'' in 1579. In 1581, at the latest, he entered the service of Vespasiano Gonzaga in Sabbioneta near Mantua; two years later he went to Mantua to the ducal court of Guglielmo Gonzaga, where he worked together with Giaches de Wert, Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi, Salamone Rossi and Claudio Monteverdi. He remained in this position until the end of his life. The earliest evidence of his time in Mantua is a letter dated October 29, 1583, in which he is described as a singer and composer. In 1584, he was sent to Venice to improve his singing skills and to study vocal practice there; then again in 1586 to prepare and supervise the printing of Guglielmo Gonzaga's ''Magnificat'' with Antonio Gardano. His dedication of his own six-part madrigals to Guglielmo Gonzaga in 1587 testifies to his admiration for his compositions.
Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga died in August 1587 and his son Vincenzo became his successor. Pallavicino initially had difficulties with Vincenzo Gonzaga. After dedicating his fourth book of five-part madrigals to the new duke with enthusiastic words in 1588, he did not seem to be held in particularly high esteem; a salary list from 1588/89 shows that he was paid less than most other musicians at court. He therefore applied for a position at the ''Scuola degli Accoliti'' in Verona and as director of the cathedral choir there. He was unsuccessful, however, as the Veronese musician Giammateo Asola was given the post and he remained in Mantua. After the death of Giaches de Wert in 1596, he became his successor as Kapellmeister at the Gonzaga court. There is little information about the last decade of the composer's life. The dedication in his sixth book of madrigals, which was addressed to Duke Alessandro Bevilacqua in 1600, suggests that he received frequent support from the ''Accademia Filarmonica'' in Verona. In November 1601, the composer died of a fever at the age of around 50.
After his death (he was succeeded by Claudio Monteverdi), Benedetto's son Bernardino Pallavicino, a Camaldolese monk at San Marco in Mantua, published his father's seventh and eighth five-part madrigal books in 1604 and 1612, together with two other books of sacred music. The relative similarity of the two first names subsequently led to confusion and initially to the erroneous assumption that Benedetto Pallavicino was a member of the Camaldolese order who died after 1612.
Wikipedia

Note: Translated from a German version of Wikipedia into English.