Giovanni Antonini

Born in Milan, Giovanni Antonini studied at the Civica Scuola di Musica and at the Centre de Musique Ancienne in Geneva.

Antonini is a founder member of the baroque ensemble "il Giardino Armonico", which he has led since 1989. He has appeared with them as conductor and soloist on the recorder and baroque transverse flute. The most important festivals, such as the Salzburg Easter and Whitsunday Festival regularly invite Giovanni Antonini. A recent tour of Handel’s Acis, Galatea e Polifemo took him to the Musikverein Vienna, Salzburg and Salamanca.

He enjoys a successful collaboration with the Kammerorchester Basel and several recordings together are planned. Their Beethoven CD (Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2) was released in 2005, when he also conducted the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Viktoria Mullova to great acclaim. Giovanni’s latest CD with Viktoria, of Vivaldi’s violin concertos, has won the prestigious Diapason d’Or 2005 for Baroque instrumental music.

Sir Simon Rattle invited Giovanni Antonini to conduct the Berliner Philharmoniker in January 2004 in works from the Classical and Baroque periods: the Berliner Zeitung defined his interpretation as "simply ingenious".

His return to both the Berlin Philharmonic and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie in Bremen last season received great praise. Engagements this season include an iGA tour of Europe with Magdalena Kozena, a tour with the Camerata Salzburg and concerts with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the Munich Chamber Orchestra. Future engagements include concerts with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra and the Spanish National Orchestra.