Amadio was born in Christchurch, New Zealand to Samuel Biddle Taylor and Eliza Taylor, and was given the birth name John Bell Taylor. When the boy was one year old, his father died and Eliza took the family to Wellington where, in 1890 at the age of 39, she married a 22-year-old carpenter and amateur flute player, Henry Antonio Amadio.
"He owed the beginnings of his extraordinary career to a prevailing public taste for operatic soprano arias with florid flute obbligatos."
Amadio"s first professional job as principal flute was with J. C. Williamson"s Italian Opera Company. There, in 1902 he accompanied the French-American operatic soprano Clementine de Vere Sapio, who presented him with the ruby ring from her finger and a bouquet of flowers after their performance of the "Mad Scene" from Lucia di Lamermoor. Later he was principal flute in Nellie Melba"s opera orchestra when she toured Australia in 1911.
From 1903 to 1912 he played in the Marshall Hall orchestra, and from 1909 to 1920 taught flute at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.
In 1919, John Amadio began his international career accompanying Luisa Tetrazzini and performing with The Hallé Orchestra, where Henry Wood described Amadio"s playing as "the finest tone I have ever heard". In 1925, Amadio and Austral visited the United States for the first time, and from then until 1936 they spent six months of every year touring there, performing in many cities including Washington District of Columbia, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, San Francisco and New York City.
Amadio often shared the stage with performers like the tenors Tito Schipa and Richard Crooks, the bass Ezio Pinza, and violinist Alfredo Campoli. "In the United States, Australia and England they were commonly met by crowds of thousands.
They would consistently sell out the choir lofts and require extra seating on the stage."
Amadio played a number of Radcliff system flutes, including some in different keys.
These included a bass flute, a low-pitched flute d"amour in B-flat, and an alto flute in G. He was an early advocate of metal flutes and some of his flutes are in the possession of the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.
