Born in Busto Arsizio, he graduated in piano and composition, after attending the Faculty of Physics for two years, studying at the same time with Franco Donatoni at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena.
Winner of various national and international competitions (including the Rai-Paganini Competition in 1982), his music has since then been regularly performed in the most important European Festivals, broadcast on the radio and recorded for many record companies.
His music is performed all over the world and has been programmed in the most important Italian and foreign theatres. In April 2016, he received the Abbiati Prize from the Music Critics as best new work in Italy for 2015. In 2002, he published for the Teatro Comunale di Monfalcone a Quaderno di Cultura Contemporanea entitled “Ah, lei fa il compositor? And what kind of music does he write?”, in 2021, in collaboration with Andrea Monarda, he published for Sonitus “Nella mente del compositore”, an extensive biography accompanied by various analytical essays, including one by Ivanka Stoianova on the opera “Il suono giallo”.
From 1995 to 2023 he taught Fugue and Composition at the “G. Verdi” Conservatory in Milan, and since 2011 he has also taught Composition at the “F. Poulenc” Conservatory in Tours. Since 2013, Radiotre has recorded and broadcast more than 160 of his Lezioni di musica.
He publishes for the Suvini Zerboni Publishing House in Milan. He is currently a teacher at the Accademia di SantaCecilia in Rome.