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, La voix humaine, Point d'orgue, Macbeth, La Bohème, Il Trovatore and La Traviata), 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, Cecilia by Licinio Refice and Le Villi), Reggio Emilia (Don Giovanni).
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, Cecilia by Licinio Refice and Palla de Mozzi by Gino Marinuzzi 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" and an anthology of Fiorenzo Carpi's music have been released for WARNER. In 2024 Naxos has published a recording of symphonic works by Franco Alfano and the complete Piano Concertos by Vittorio Rieti.
Programmed for future seasons are: Don Pasquale in Lausanne, Falstaff in Verona, The Abduction from the Seraglio, The Magic Flute, Tosca, Les parapluies de Cherbourg, Verdi's Requiem in Saint-Étienne, La Notte di un nevrastenico and Il Segreto di Susanna in Bolzano and several symphonic concerts with Orchestre Symphonique Saint-Étienne Loire, Orchestra dell'Accademia del Teatro alla Scala, Orchestra Toscanini di Parma, Orchestra del Teatro Verdi di Trieste.
In april 2019 he has been appointed Principal Conductor and Casting Manager of Opéra de Saint-Étienne.