CLAUDIO ASTRONIO graduated with full marks in Organ and Composition at the Bolzano Conservatory "C. Monteverdi" and with "cum laude" and honourable mention in Harpsichord from the Conservatory “G.B Martini” in Bologna under the guidance of Annaberta Conti. He participated in various organ, harpsichord, and conducting masterclasses at the summer academies of Haarlem (Netherlands), Innsbruck (Austria), and Santiago de Compostela (Spain) where he received the special award "Andres Segovia y Ruiz Morales". He continued his studies at the Conservatorio Superior di Barcelona (Spain) under the guidance of Monserrat Torrent Serra. He has received distinguished prizes and awards in National and International competitions in both organ and harpsichord. After conducting for several years the ensemble HARMONICES MUNDI with original instruments, which was devoted to the study and performance of Italian and German instrumental music of the 16th to 18th centuries, Claudio Astronio founded in 2006 the BOZEN BAROQUE ORCHESTRA. He is a regular guest performer and conductor at the most prestigious halls of Italy, Europe, Japan, USA and Canada.
He has performed and conducted with such musicians as Gordon Murray, Doron Sherwin, Max Van Egmond, Gemma Bertagnolli, Marius Van Altena, Federico Guglielmo, Susanne Ryden, Dan Laurin, Yuri Bashmet, Gustav Leonhardt and has participated in numerous radio and television broadcasts allover the world.
Claudio Astronio has recorded several CDs, for Stradivarius label; his recordings have received various international awards from specialised magazines like Musica, CD Classica, Amadeus, Classic Voice, Alte Musik Aktuelle, Diapason, Repertoire, Le monde de la musique, El Paìs, Ritmo, Diverdi, Goldberg ,Continuo and Fanfare (USA): among them the complete Keyboard work of Antonio de Cabezon, which received with the first 3 volumes the honour of “Recommendation of the Month” by the French magazine Diapason , the spanish Goldberg and the american magazine Continuo. His recording of the Third part of the Klavieruebung by Johann Sebastian Bach has gained the recommendation from the french magazines Repertoire (10) Diapason (5) and “ CD of the month” from Le monde de la musique” (“Choc de la musique”, July 2001).
Among his musical interests are also Jazz and pop music : he collaborates as composer, arranger and keyboard-player with Andrea Maffei and together they won the award Premio Recanati per la canzone d’autore 1996 and 1997. He has also conducted Banda Osiris and has worked with the jazz-singer Maria Pia de Vito in two crossover musical projects called “Chaconne” and “Coplas a lo divino” where early music and early instruments meet modern patterns of improvisation. He also wrote and published several articles for musicological Rewievs (Musica domani, Galileo) and has recently published the modern edition of the complete keyboard work of Antonio de Cabezon published by Ut-Orpheus in Bologna. He holds masterclasses in organ and harpsichord in Italy, Spain, Norway, USA and other European countries and currently teaches organ at the European Academy of Ancient Music as well as harpsichord and ensemble music at the Antonio Vivaldi Institute of Music in Bolzano.
He is the founding member of the Musica Antiqua Association in Bolzano and works as artistic director of the International Festival of Early Music together with the Accademia Europea di Musica Antica called “Antiqua.bz”.