Having first picked up the violin at age two, Zanon became the youngest violinist in Italian history at the age of four to attend one of the country’s state conservatories. He was prize winner in more than 30 national and international competitions, including the International Competition for Young Violinists K. Lipinski and H. Wieniawski in Lublin, the Premio Nazionale delle Arti in which he gained the title of Best Violinist of all Italian Conservatories and the VII International Novosibirsk Violin Competition where he also won all special jury prizes.

Zanon has received various awards and recognition from Italian institutions including the “Leone d’oro” award from the Veneto Regional Government, Certificate of Honor “Alfiere della Repubblica” for outstanding achievements in music from the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella and at aged six from the former President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.

Upon the advice of Zubin Mehta, he moved to New York to study at the Manhattan School of Music where he graduated age 18 with a master’s degree from the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program, after having studied with Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec. Furthermore, Zanon went on to study at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin with Antje Weithaas and at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with Sonig Tchakerian.  He is currently studying composition at the A. Steffani Music Conservatory in Castelfranco Veneto.

During his career to date, Giovanni has performed in prestigious venues such as the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Musikverein in Graz, the Smetana Hall in Prague, the Bayerisches Staatsoper in Munich, the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden, the Royal Opera House in Muscat, the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona, the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Roma and the Arena di Verona. He has worked with esteemed conductors including Fabio Luisi, Theodore Guschlbauer, Andrea Battistoni, Donato Renzetti, Omer Meir Wellber and Jader Bignamini. He has also collaborated in chamber music’s projects with such artists as Anna Netrebko, Pinchas Zukerman, Mario Brunello and Pablo Ferrandez.

In October 2021, Giovanni Andrea Zanon became the Artistic Director of the Teatro Petrarca (Arezzo, Tuscany) and the Fondazione Guido d’Arezzo. In 2022, he represented Italy, the host of the next Winter Olympics, at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. And as a talented Italian violin artist, he participated in the much-anticipated “Eight Minutes” performance, playing the Italian national anthem to audiences all over the world. The “National Treasure of Italy” used by Giovanni—a pure wooden violin named ‘del Gesù’ was made by Giuseppe Guarneri in the 18th century with a history of more than two hundred years—is worth more than 5 million euros.