Jean-François Antonioli, Swiss of North Italian origin, was born in Lausanne (Switzerland) in 1959. Having obtained a First Prize of Virtuosity at the Lausanne Conservatoire, he deepened his artistic knowledge for more than 3 years with Pierre Sancan in Paris. His meeting Bruno Seidlhofer (Vienna) and Carlo Zecchi (Rome) also had a decisive impact on his training.

He has been invited to perform, either solo or with orchestra, in many musical centres throughout Europe, Israël and Canada. His U.S. début took place in 1991 with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C.. He has appeared in a number of international festivals such as Montreux-Vevey, Lucerne, Orpheum Soloists in Bad Ragaz, Radio-France in Montpellier, Jeunesse Festival at the Vienna Konzerthaus, The Merano Festival in Italy, The Dubrovnik Summer Festival, the Zadar and Varazdin Festivals in Croatia, Pecs Napok in Hungary, Enescu and Lipatti in Bucharest, Lanaudière in Montréal, the Québec Festival d'Eté, the Birmingham Festival of Arts and that of Wolf Trap in Washington. His radio performances have been relayed by the European Broadcasting Union and the French-speaking Community of Public Radios.

He has recorded 20 different CDs. His piano recordings on the Claves label include Debussy's 24 Préludes, as well as works by Busoni and Joachim Raff with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra conducted by Lawrence Foster. Devoted to Frank Martin's works for piano and orchestra, his first record was distinguished at once by the French "Grand Prix International du Disque de l'Académie Charles Cros" in Paris in 1986, before being selected, along with the twenty best records of the year, by fifty critics from all over the world for the IRCA in New-York.

His conducting activities began in 1988. From 1993 to 2002 he has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Timisoara Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he has toured several European countries. He often shoulders both the conducting and the solo part, notably in the complete Concerti by Mozart. In April 1995 at the Atheneum of Bucharest, the UNESCO and the Rumanian Education Ministry presented him with the Dinu Lipatti Medal "as a token of high appreciation".

Several records were made with the Timisoara Philharmonic: 2 Mozart Piano Concerti for the label Claves, Jean Perrin's De Profundis, C.-M. von Weber; for the label Timpani in Paris, Arthur Honegger and Ferruccio Busoni (world premiere recordings). With the Luxemburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Jean Cras' symphonic works received 5 Diapasons by the famous French magazine, and yet another "Grand Prix du Disque de l'Académie Charles Cros" in 1997.

Antonioli is in charge of a virtuosity class at the Lausanne Conservatoire and has been giving master-classes since 1986 on the Island of San Giulio on the Lake of Orta in Italy, at the Music Academy of Sion (Tibor Varga Festival) from 1991 to 1994 and at the European Piano Teachers Association Summer School in Dubrovnik in 1999 and 2001. In 1995, he started a summer seminar for young soloists devoted to Mozart's concertante music in collaboration with the University of Timisoara. In addition, various national and international competitions invite him to take part in their juries.

Thanks to his activity as soloist and conductor, the premières of many composer's works have been given, among whom Honegger, Lipatti, Perrin, Balissat, Fries, Metianu, Scolari, Derbès, Kovach, as well as the first European hearing of Henri Dutilleux's Le Jeu des Contraires (1989) and several world first recordings by Honegger, Frank Martin, Cras, Perrin, Derbès, Busoni.

Two films by W. Wehmeyer from Germany on Antonioli were issued: "Hearing Vocation" (on the Island San Giulio, 2000) and "Listening Eyes" about the relationship with the Timisoara Philharmonic (2002).

In November 1999, Jean-François Antonioli was elected full member of the Central European Academy of Science and Art.