Luca Francesconi studied piano at the Conservatory of Milan and composition with Azio Corghi, Karlheinz Stockhausen (in Rome), Luciano Berio (at Tanglewood) and jazz in Boston.

He also worked as an assistant of Berio beetwen 1981 and 1984.

In 1990 he founded AGON Acustica Informatica Musica, a centre for production and musical research with new technologies based in Milan.

Among the many prizes and international awards he has received are the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis (Darmstadt 1990), the Förderpreis der Ernst-von-Siemens-Musikstiftung (Munich 1994) and the Prix Italia for Ballata del rovescio del mondo, a radio opera with texts by Umberto Fiori (1994).

Many important international institutions have programmed concerts dedicated exclusively to his music. He has so far written over seventy works for very different forces (ranging from soloist, large orchestra and opera to multimedia), many of these commissioned by leading musical institutions and radio corporations.

He’s written five Radio-Operas for RAI Corporation and several stage or open air operas, frequently  using multimedia technologies like the video-opera Striàz(with Studio Azzurro video makers) and Lips, Eyes… Bang for performer and ensemble with realtime audio and video transformations, commissioned by Nieuw Ensemble and STEIM Amsterdam.

His electronic and vocal music includes Etymo for soprano, chamber orchestra and electronics (from Baudelaire); three solos with real time electronics  (Animus I for trombone and Animus II for viola - commissioned by IRCAM - Animus III for tuba commissioned by ZKM with musikFabrik); Sirene/Gespenster: a pagan oratorio for four female choirs, percussion, brass and electronics produced by WDR, ASKO Ensemble and IRCAM. The wind music includes two quintets (Attesa and Accordo), an octet (Aria) a Gabrieli  transcription and an instrumental suite from Monteverdi’s Orfeo commissioned by Nederlandse Blazers Ensemble and two big works for five moving wind orchestras (Mittel and Fresco). He has also written several works for large orchestra among which: Wanderer for La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti and Cobalt, Scarlet premiered by the Oslo Philharmonic under Marek Janowsky (both regularly performed by major world orchestras like the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Israel Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Gothenborg Symphoniker, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, BBC Symphony, RAI Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony and others).

He has written so far four String Quartets regularly performed by Arditti Quartet and two violin concertos for Irvine Arditti: Riti Neurali and Body Electric (with live electronics).

Choral music includes Terre del rimorso for soloists, chorus and orchestra, composed for the Festival Musica  Strasbourg 2001  and premiered with the SWR Symphonie  Orchestra and Vokalensemble Stuttgart conducted by Eötvös, and Let me Bleed for the New London Chamber Choir.

Works premiered in 2002 are Buffa Opera under the direction of the composer, commissioned and produced by the Piccolo Teatro of Milan and the opera Ballata (1996-1999) on a libretto by Umberto Fiori (after Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient Mariner), commissioned by the Théâtre de la Monnaie of Brussels conducted by Kazushi Ono and directed by Achim Freyer.

In 2004 the Holland Festival commissioned Gesualdo Considered as a Murderer, an opera composed to a text by Vittorio Sermonti and directed by Giorgio Barberio Corsetti.

The year 2004 also saw the premiere of Rest (2003) “Luciano Berio in memoriam” for cello and orchestra commissioned by the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, written for the soloist Anssi Karttunen and conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste.

Recent works include Kubrick's Bone for cimbalon and ensemble for Luigi Gaggero; a new trumpet concerto, Hard Pace,  that was premiered by Håkan Hardenberger and Santa.Cecilia Orchestra under Tony Pappano, in Rome (April 2008) (this work is co-commissioned by Accademia S. Cecilia with the collaboration of Zaterdag Matinée at Concertgebouw, Gothenborg Symphoniker, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Festival MITO); Sirène for mixed chorus and orchestra performed in Paris (June 2009)  at Festival Agora.

He regularly collaborates with the world’s leading musicians and international orchestras. He also conducts.

He has been teaching for 25 years both in Italian conservatory and in masterclasses all over the world.

At present he is professor and head of the department of composition at the Musikhögskolan of Malmö in Sweden. Since February 2008 (until 2012) he has been the new Artistic Director of Biennale Venice.