Born in Milan in 1970, he graduated at the Milan Conservatory G. Verdi in 1995, studying Composition with Azio Corghi and Danilo Lorenzini. He also attended masterclasses with Paolo Castaldi, John Cage and Louis Andriessen.
His works have been performed by musicians such as Luciano Berio, James MacMillan, Dimitri Ashkenazy, Emanuele Arciuli, David Alan Miller, Enrique Mazzola, London Sinfonietta, California EAR Unit in festivals, theaters and concert halls including Lucerne Festival, South Bank Center (London), Bang On A Can Marathon (New York), Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, Teatro alla Scala, Venice Biennale, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
Commissioned by the City of Copenaghen European capital of culture in 1996, he participated in the collective composition of European Requiem, written by poets and musicians from different areas of Europe.
In 1997 in collaboration with Angelo Miotto and Carlo Boccadoro he founded Sentieri selvaggi, a group dedicated to perform and disseminate new music.
In 2001 the comic book opera Orfeo a fumetti, based on text and drawings by Dino Buzzati, was staged in Milan and immediately revived in Turin, Mantua and Rome. In the same year the opera project Non guardate al domani about Aldo Moro’s kidnapping and murder was selected for the final round of the international competition “Genesis Prize for Opera”.
In 2009 the work of musical theatre Io Hitler on text by Giuseppe Genna was premiered at MiTo Settembre Musica festival. In collaboration with Fanny Ardant, Masbedo and Alex Cremonesi, he created in 2012 the cross media opera Il Rimedio della Fortuna, staged at Teatro Strehler in Milan and RomaEuropa Festival.
From 2013 to 2021 he was appointed Deputy Major for Culture in the Municipality of Milan, and he has therefore suspended any composition activity.
His return to music took place with A coda di rondine, premiered by James Feddeck conducting Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra in 2023; in the same year, the label Da Vinci Classics released the album A coda di rondine, with orchestral works and solo concertos.
His scores have been recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Cantaloupe, Da Vinci Classics, BMG Ricordi, Emi Classics, Sensible Records, Stradivarius, and published by Curci, Ricordi, Suvini Zerboni, Sonzogno, RaiCom.
He is a Professor of Composition at the Milan Conservatory.