After studying Composition and Orchestral Conducting, Maestro Benini made his conducting debut at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna with Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino.

In 1992 he made his debut at the Teatro alla Scala with La Donna del Lago and Don Carlo and at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro with La Scala di Seta.

The Italian Maestro was Principal Conductor at the Filarmonici del Teatro Comunale di Bologna between 1984 and 1991, at the Wexford Festival from 1995 to 1997, at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile until 2006 and Principal Guest Conductor at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples (2011).

Maurizio Benini is a regular guest of many of the world's most prestigious opera houses such as Metropolitan Opera in New York, Opéra de Paris, Wiener Staatsoper, Royal Opera House-Covent Garden in London, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro Real in Madrid, Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, Opernhaus in Zürich, Opéra de Montecarlo, Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse and Teatro La Fenice in Venice, just to name only a few. He frequently participates in prominent international festivals such as the Glyndebourne Festival, Rossini Opera Festival, Festival of Edinburgh.

He regularly collaborates with the label Opera Rara, while his most recent recording is Rossini’s La Cenerentola with Deutsche Grammophon.

Most recently he conducted Manon, Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Pasquale, Roberto Devereux, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, I Puritani, Semiramide and Norma in New York; Leoncavallo's Zazà, Nabucco, La Traviata and Les Vêpres siciliennes in London; I Capuleti e Montecchi and La Sonnambula in Zürich; Anna Bolena in Sevilla; Lucia di Lammermoor in Toulouse; Anna Bolena in Paris; Adriana Lecouvreur, Luisa Miller and Falstaff in Monte Carlo; Il Trovatore and Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Amsterdam; Rigoletto in Buenos Aires; Il Trovatore, Il Pirata, La Sonnambula in Madrid; Rossini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi and Otello in Liège; Rossini's Petite messe solennelle and Il Giudizio Universale in Cagliari; Roberto Devereux, Maria Stuarda, Anna Bolena and Il Trovatore in Valencia; and Rigoletto, Tosca and La Sonnambula in Tokyo.

Future engagement's include: Gounod's Faust at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London; I Puritani at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and Rigoletto at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.