Paolo Carignani was born in Milan, where he graduated from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in composition, organ and piano.

He later studied conducting with Alceo Galliera.

He has conducted in many Italian opera houses and in prestigious international venues such as the Staatsoper Wien, the Staatsoper Berlin and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the War Memorial in San Francisco, the Met in New York, the Gran Teatre de Liceu in Barcelona, the Concertgebouw Theater Opera in Amsterdam, the Royal Opera House in London, the Opera Bastille in Paris, in Oslo, Brussels, Antwerp, Glyndebourne, Spoleto, the Schleswig Holstein Festival, the Rheingau Festival and at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro.

His symphonic repertoire has led him to collaborate with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the Young Nederland's Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra, the KIOTI Sinfonietta, the NDR, WDR, ORF radio orchestras, the RAI National Orchestra of Turin, the Nederlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Gothenburg and many others.

From 1999 to 2008 Paolo Carignani was Generalmusikdirektor of the Frankfurt am Main Opernhouse and Director of the Stable Frankfurter Opern – And Museumsorchester.

He has conducted world premieres in Amsterdam, Antwerp, at the Bregenz and Salzburg Festspiele, Brussels, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Munich, Strasbourg, Toronto, Zurich, and is a regular guest at the MET, Barcelona, Madrid, Munich, Paris, Tokyo, Vienna, and Zurich, performing the entire great Italian repertoire, from Mozart to Belcanto, up to Verdi and Verismo, with new creations and modern first performances of rare works, recorded on CD and DVD for major labels.

In 2018/19 he made his debut at the Teatro alla Scala conducting a new production of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, at the Bolshoi in A masked ball, and will return regularly to Copenhagen, Munich, Vienna, Bolshoi, Antwerp, Sydney, Zurich, the MET.

In 2022/2023 he will be in Sydney to direct Aida, in Zurich for Troubadour, at the MET with Aida, in Berlin with The force of Destiny and in Copenhagen for Traviata is Aida.

The 24/25 season will see him again on the podium of the Copenhagen theatre for Cinderella, Madama Butterfly, Tristan und Isolde, at the Hannover Theater for Aida is Tosca, in Tel Aviv for Rigoletto and in Toronto for Nabucco. Still in Geneva for Traviata and in Hamburg with The Maiden of the West.

He carries out an intense concert activity, in particular with the most famous orchestras in Japan, where he is regularly invited.