Francesco Stefanelli was born in 1999 in San Marino, he studied with Jens Peter Maintz at the Escuela Reina Sofia and he currently studies with Frans Helmerson at the Stauffer Academy. He is the winner of numerous prizes such as 2nd prize at the Krzysztof Penderecki 2018, 3rd prize at Belgrade Jeunesses 2022 WFIMC, 3rd prize at Rahn Music Prize Zurich 2018, 1st prize at the Antonio Janigro competition in Croatia 2016 and 1st prize "Maura Giorgetti" of the Filarmonica della Scala 2015 as best young Italian cellist.

He has performed as a soloist with the Serbian Radio Television Orchestra, WDR Sinfonieorchester, North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, FORM, Solisti Veneti.

He recorded David Fontanesi's cello concerto with “I Virtuosi Italiani" for DaVinci.

As a chamber musician he played in Unione Musicale, MITO Settembre, IUC Sapienza, Trame Sonore, Musikamera, Ente Concerti Pesaro, Sagra Musicale Malatestiana. He plays regularly with pianist Nicola Pantani; they recorded a CD with DaVinci Classical and they won 2nd prize at the Pinerolo International ChamberMusic Competition 2025. He also played with soloists like Louis Lortie, Nicolas Baldeyrou, Antonio Meneses, Miguel Da Silva and Alessandro Marangoni, with whom he recorded Castelnuovo piano quintets for Naxos.

He has attended masterclasses with David Geringas, Enrico Dindo, Antonio Meneses, Thomas Demenga, Ivan Monighetti, Marianne Chen, W.E. Schmidt, Young-Chang Cho, Asier Polo. He received scholarships from Switzerland government “ESKAS per l’Eccellenza”, De Sono Associazione per la Musica Torino, Musikakademie Liechtenstein.