Born in Locarno, Switzerland, in 1963 Ivo Antognini obtained his degree in piano in 1985 at Lucerne, studying with Nora Doallo. His diploma in piano was followed by studies at the Swiss Jazz School in Berne with pianist Joe Haider.

Composition was of great interest to him as a child, so he taught himself and has been dedicated to composing ever since. From 1989 to the present day he has composed a multitude of music for television and film.

Ivo Antognini has released three jazz albums with his original works: The Dark Cloud (1993), Inspiration (1998), and Feggàri mou (2005). An informal, but very important, meeting with the Coro Calicantus and its director, Mario Fontana, led him to discover the field of choral music in 2006. He immediately became composer-in-residence of this splendid, world-class children's choir.

He presented a series of his compositions at the 8th World Symposium on Choral Music with the Calicantus Choir in July 2008 in Copenhagen and obtained extraordinary public and critical success. In 2008 he also was awarded two first prizes in Swiss national choral composition competitions: SKJF-09 and Label Suisse.

Ivo Antognini's choral works have won prizes and mentions at international competitions, such as the International Competition of Choral Composition "Seghizzi" 2009, 2010 and 2012, the 2010 and 2011 Simon Carrington Chamber Singers Composition Competition, the Vanguard Premieres Choral Composition Contest 2010, the 37th International Composition Contest "Guido d'Arezzo", the 2011 Choral Arts Ensemble Commissioning Contest, the Contemporary Americana Festival 2012 - Boston and the 2012 Freudig Singers Choral Composition Competition.

He was appointed Featured Composer of the Schola Cantorum on Hudson for the 2011-2012 concert season. He was invited by the American Choral Directors Association to present his choral music during the World Choir Games in Cincinnati (July 2012) where he was also one of the adjudicators of the competition.

Starting from 2009, his music has been performed worldwide by top-level choirs such us Trinity College Choir of Cambridge, Trinity Wall Street Choir, Artists’ Vocal Ensemble, Vancouver Chamber Choir, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Cappella Nova, Antioch Chamber Ensemble, St. Lawrence Choir, Kölner Kantorei, Lund University Male Choir, de Angelis Vocal Ensemble, Salt Lake Vocal Artists, Milwaukee Choral Artists, Swiss Youth Choir, Elektra Women’s Choir, Oriana Women’s Choir and many others.

Since 1987 he has served as Professor of Ear-training and of Complementary Piano in the professional training level of the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano. His choral works are published by Alliance Music Pub., Porfiri & Horváth, de Haske / Hal Leonard, Annie Bank Edition, Ferrimontana, and others.