Francesco Antonioni hails from a family of musicians. He was born in Teramo, Italy, in 1971. He graduated with honors in composition and piano. He continued his studies at Rome’s Santa Cecilia National Academy, under Azio Corghi. He was then awarded The Queen Mother Scholarship and studied under Julian Anderson at the Royal College of Music in London.
Antonioni’s compositions have been performed by some of the music world’s biggest stars, and have been broadcast on radio and TV throughout Europe and in the United States. He has received commissions from prestigious music institutions, as well as from his mentors, George Benjamin and Hans Werner Henze, for whom he worked as an assistant for three years.
Over the course of his career he has worked with world-renowned conductors and musicians, including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Pascal Rophé, Jonathan Webb, Lü Jia, David Alan Miller, Sian Edwards, Bruno Canino, Andrea Bacchetti, Cristina Zavalloni, and Mario Caroli, and has collaborated with some of the world’s leading symphony orchestras and ensembles, including the Santa Cecilia National Academy Orchestra, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra of Torino, the Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra of Milano, the Regional Orchestra of Tuscany, the Albany Symphony Orchestra (USA), the Smith Quartet (London), the Freon Ensemble (Rome), Sentieri Selvaggi (Milano), Quartetto Klimt (Florence), OrchestrUtopica (Lisbon), Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt), and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (UK).
Antonioni’s music reflects the breadth of his cultural interests, as he seeks to distill an array of contemporary trends and combine them with traditional classical music forms. Known for his originality and independent spirit, Antonioni has delved into a plethora of musical genres and composed pieces for a host of diverse occasions, which have been performed at some of the world’s most important concert venues and festivals. He has also written music for television, including documentaries produced by Italy’s RAI network, as well as for a photo exhibition by the late Italian photographer Gabriele Basilico.
Francesco Antonioni has also won a number of international awards. In 2009 he was the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship, and served as a visiting scholar at Cornell University (USA). He has also taught at the Dartington International Summer School.
Francesco Antonioni lives in Rome and teaches composition at the Ottorino Respighi Conservatory in Latina.
www.francescoantonioni.com