Franco Cesarini was born in Bellinzona in 1961 and began his studies in the flute and piano at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, later completing them at the University of Music in Basel. He then trained in composition, theory and brass orchestra conducting with Hauswirth, Suter and Wildberger.

From 1989 to 2006, he lectured at the School of Music in Zurich. He was a visiting lecturer at the Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau (US) in 2001. He has lectured at the conservatoire in Lugano since 2001, and is conductor of the Civica Filarmonica di Lugano brass orchestra and the Orchestra di Fiati della Svizzera Italiana, the brass orchestra of Italian-speaking Switzerland. As a composer, Cesarini has worked for a number of international orchestras, including the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba and the Nantes Philharmonic. He has won several awards, notably from the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and the Stephan Jäggi Foundation.