She started playing the piano at the tender age of 4, and she found guidance from her fundamental teachers, Lucia Passaglia and Mariolina Porrà, under whose tutelage she graduated in Florence and Milan with top marks, honors, and accolades in piano. Her educational journey extended to harpsichord, clavichord, and fortepiano.
Her musical activity is essentially chamber music and didactic: since 1995, in Italy and Switzerland, she has taught many children and young people at different levels, from basic training to the concert dimension, and she believes she has left his students with a meaningful and well-founded relationship with music. Many of them have been awarded prizes in performance competitions and have prepared and taken examinations at Italian and foreign conservatories with excellent results. Francesca Rivabenee has composed much new music, reductions, elaborations, and transcriptions specifically conceived for her students and their ensemble activities. Currently, she teaches at the Conservatory of Cagliari and the Liceo Musicale Malipiero in Varese. As a chamber musician, she boasts a broad repertoire, encompassing nearly comprehensive duo performances featuring cello and flute. Additionally, she has a substantial collection of works for 4-hands piano and two pianos. Actively engaging in concerts with various ensembles, she consistently demonstrates her versatility and takes pleasure in contributing as an accompanist in Masterclasses.
One noteworthy facet of her repertoire is the chamber theatre production, a creative reinterpretation of the 19th-century salon of Cristina Trivulzio di Belgiojoso titled En attendant Chopin by M. Znaniecki. Serving as both pianist and actress, she has been actively involved in presenting this show since 1998, with initial performances in Rome (1999), Warsaw (2002), and the Festival delle Nazioni di Città di Castello (2005). In 2010, commemorating the bicentenary of Chopin's birth, the play became part of the Wielki Theatre's program in Poznan, Poland, with over forty performances in Poznan, Wielkopolska, and an international tour encompassing venues in Cuba, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Santander.
Furthermore, her collaboration with Pinuccia Carrer has led her into the realms of musicological research, notably focused on Milanese music from the early 19th century associated with female figures. Engaging in around twenty performances dedicated to female musicians, she has actively participated in conferences and, alongside M. Fedrigotti, co-authored the article "Musiciste e Giardiniere" for the 2008 publication "Le Lombarde in musica..." by the Adkins-Chiti Foundation: donne in musica. Musiciste e Giardiniere per la pubblicazione del volume, edito nel 2008, Le Lombarde in musica… della Fondazione Adkins-Chiti: donne in musica.