Italian conductor Antonio Florio is also a composer and musicologist. He began to study music in his hometown of Bari, taking lessons in cello and piano, and studying composition with Nino Rota. He also took an interest in early music, studying period instruments and performance practices of the Baroque era. He founded the Cappella della Pietà de' Turchini, now called I Turchini, in 1987. Florio specializes in 17th and 18th century Neapolitan music, researching works of the period and performing neglected operas by Francesco Provenzale, Francesco Boerio, Gaetano Latilla, Leonardo Vinci, Giovanni Paisiello, Francesco Cavalli, Gian Francesco de Majo, and Pasquale Anfossi, among other neglected composers. As a teacher, Florio has taught master classes and seminars at the Centre de Musique Baroque, Versailles, the Fondation Royaumont, and the Toulouse Conservatoire. He is also the chair of chamber music at the Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella in Naples.