Born in Locarno, Francesco Piemontesi studied with Arie Vardi before working with Alfred Brendel, Murray Perahia, Cécile Ousset and Alexis Weissenberg. He rose to international prominence with prizes at several major competitions, including the 2007 Queen Elisabeth Competition. Since 2012, Piemontesi has been the Artistic Director of the Settimane Musicali di Ascona.

Piemontesi appears with major ensembles worldwide including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Münchner Philharmoniker, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich and Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Piemontesi has performed with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Charles Dutoit, Sir Mark Elder, Iván Fischer, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Manfred Honeck, Marek Janowski, Neeme Järvi, Ton Koopman, Zubin Mehta, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Antonio Pappano and Yuri Temirkanov. Piemontesi also performs chamber music with a variety of partners including Leif Ove Andsnes, Yuri Bashmet, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Heinrich Schiff, Christian Tetzlaff, Jörg Widmann, Tabea Zimmermann and the Emerson String Quartet.

In solo recital, Piemontesi has appeared in many prestigious venues including Wigmore Hall in London, The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Philharmonie Berlin, Tonhalle in Zürich, Wiener Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Carnegie Hall and David Geffen Hall in New York and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Piemontesi has performed at the Salzburg, Lucerne, Edinburgh, Verbier, Aix-en-Provence, La Roque d’Anthéron, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg- Vorpommern and Mostly Mozart Festivals.

In the 2020/21 season Francesco Piemontesi performed with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande as artist-in-residence, and appeared with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Symphoniker with Lahav Shani, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester with Herbert Blomstedt, Dresdner Philharmonie with Pablo González, Philharmonia with Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg with Andrew Manze, Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra with Fabio Luisi, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France with Aziz Shokhakimov.