After a piano and composition degree, Giuseppe Grazioli learnt orchestral conducting with Gianluigi Gelmetti, Leopold Hager, Franco Ferrara, Peter Maag and Leonard Bernstein. He then led the main Italian orchestras.
In 2001, he was invited to La Scala for the closing Concert before its restoration; he then conducted the final of Operalia Competition in Paris (Théâtre du Châtelet) after which Placido Domingo invited him to Washington Opera for Lucia di Lammermoor and Les Pêcheurs de perles.
With a large repertoire ranging from classical to contemporary music, Giuseppe Grazioli premiered in Italy Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio, Nicola Piovani’s ballet Fellini, as well as the world première of Marco Tutino's Vita in 2003 leading La Scala’s Orchestra.
Giuseppe Grazioli has appeared in Torino (Orphée aux Enfers, La Tempesta, Le Nozze di Figaro), Rome (Il Gatto con gli Stivali), Yale University (Gianni Schicchi, Suor Angelica, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, La bohème, Don Giovanni), Genoa (Candide), Nantes and Angers (Le Comte Ory, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Il Turco in Italia), Québec (Lucia di Lammermoor, La damnation de Faust in a Robert Lepage's production, Carmen, Falstaff, Nabucco, Tosca), Montréal (Tosca), Nancy (L'Italiana in Algeri), Montpellier (La Traviata), Luxembourg (Il Turco in Italia), Palermo (Orphée et Eurydice), Saint-Etiènne (Semiramide, Don Giovanni, Otello), Florence (Il barbiere di Siviglia and La Cenerentola), Milan's Piccolo Teatro (The Threepenny Opera), Santiago (La forza del destino), Martina Franca (Rota's Napoli milionaria and Paisiello's La grotta di Trofonio for the Festival della Valle d'Itria), Guangzhou (Don Giovanni), Daegu (La Rondine), Cagliari (Palla de' Mozzi by Gino Marinuzzi, Le Villi).
Among his recordings are some rarities of 20th century by De Falla, Auric, Martinu, Casella, Malipiero, Rieti, Lambert, Bax, Bartok, the first world recording of Zandonai's Quadri di Segantini, as well as several works by Nino Rota: La Visita Meravigliosa, Lo Scoiattolo in gamba, Cristallo di Rocca and the first world recording of Napoli milionaria. In summer 2011 he has started recording for DECCA the Complete Symphonic Works of Nino Rota with Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi. In 2017 he has recorded for DECCA a tribute to Gino Marinuzzi's music and an homage to Kurt Weill. In 2021 a new CD titled "Italian Soundtracks" has been released for WARNER.
Programmed for future seasons are: Don Giovanni in Reggio Emilia, Macbeth in Santiago, Madama Butterfly, La voix humaine, Point d'orgue and La Traviata in Saint-Étienne, Cecilia by Licinio Refice in Cagliari and several symphonic concerts with Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi di Milano, Orchestre Symphonique Saint-Étienne Loire, Tianjin Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmonica de Santiago, Orchestra della Fondazione Arena di Verona, Orchestre National Île de France.
In april 2019 he has been appointed Principal Conductor and Casting Manager of Opéra de Saint-Étienne.