Ivo Antognini – composer

Ivo Antognini graduated in piano in 1985 in Lucerne, after studying first with Roberto

Braccini and later with Nora Doallo at the school that would later become the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana.

A self-taught composer, he has enjoyed composing and improvising on the piano since

childhood. From 1990 to 1991 he studied at the Swiss Jazz School in Bern, an experience that led him to publish three CDs as composer and performer.

From 1990 to 2004, he collaborated with various Swiss film makers for whom he composed several soundtracks.

In 2006, he began a collaboration with the Calicantus Choir in Locarno and its master and founder Mario Fontana; this adventure led Antognini to devote himself almost exclusively to composing choral music. In a short time, his pieces spread internationally and were published by numerous publishers including Alliance Music Pub., Walton Music, Hal Leonard, G. Schirmer, Peters, Boosey & Hawkes and many others.

Ivo Antognini is regularly invited as a juror to national and international choral and

composition competitions and has presented his music in Switzerland, Italy, France,

Hungary, Ireland, Slovenia, Greece, the USA and Japan.

Antognini's pieces have been performed in at least 56 countries by the most renowned

choirs.

In March 2016, a concert entirely dedicated to his a cappella works entitled "Vocal Colors" took place at New York's Lincoln Center. Three months later, again in New York but on this occasion at Carnegie Hall, his oratorio "A Prayer for Mother Earth" sees its world premiere with Andrew Crane conducting.

In April 2023, a monographic CD with the Trinity College Choir of Cambridge conducted

by Stephen Layton is released on the Hyperion Records label.

In 2020 he received the prestigious Raymond W. Brock Memorial Commission Award from the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), and in 2024 he was awarded the Swiss Music Prize.

Antognini currently teaches ear training and piano at the Conservatorio della Svizzera

italiana in Lugano. He lives in Aranno with his wife Patrizia, also a piano teacher at the

Conservatorio, and his two children, Eleonora (professionally known as Ele A) and Milo.