Franco Donatoni (9 June 1927 – 17 August 2000) was an Italian composer.
Born in Verona, Donatoni started studying violin at the age of seven, and frequented the local Music Academy. Later he studied at the Milan Conservatory and Bologna Conservatory.

At least three generations of composers studied with Donatoni. Among his Italian pupils were Sandro Gorli, Matteo D'Amico, Roberto Carnevale, Giulio Castagnoli, Ivan Fedele, Luigi Manfrin, Giorgio Magnanensi, Luca Mosca, Riccardo Nova Riccardo Piacentini, Fausto Romitelli, Pietro Borradori, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Alessandro Solbiati, Piero Niro, Claudio Scannavini, Giovanni Verrando, and among his foreign pupils Michael Dellaira, Pascal Dusapin, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Magnus Lindberg, Katia Tiutiunnik, Javier Torres Maldonado, and Juan Trigos. See: List of music students by teacher: C to F#Franco Donatoni.

Donatoni died in Milan in 2000, wishing to work in his second book of his monumental "Arte della Fuga”, for large orchestra, based on the original work of Johann Sebastian Bach.