Claudio Vandelli was born in Milano in 1967, where he studied piano, clarinet and conducting. He then studied clarinet with Antony Pay and conducting with Sergiu Celibidache and Carlo Maria Giulini, among others.

From the age of 20, part of his professional life has been devoted to recognizing and shaping young talented professional orchestral musicians. From 1989 to 1996 he was responsible of musician selections, assistant conductor and then guest conductor of the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra. With this orchestra he led the first recording of "Mosaïques" by Iannis Xenakis and its Italian première at the Roma-Europa Festival.

In 1999 he formed the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra. He was its Director of Music Department and Music Director James Levine's assistant until 2007. During this period the orchestra was often recognized by the press as the leading training orchestra for young professionals worldwide. 

Claudio Vandelli worked with Verbier guest conductors. Among them: Jiri Belohlávek, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnányi, Charles Dutoit, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, Michail Pletnev, Mstislav Rostropovich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Yuri Temirkanov.

He conducted the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra on several occasions, like their first international tour, in April 2005.

Guest of the Verbier Festival & Academy, he conducted at the "Festival d'Aix-en-Provence", at "Bashmet" Festival in Minsk, at "BeMus" Festival in Belgrade, at the Sochi and Yaroslavl Festivals in Russia, at the European Classic Festival Ruhr in Germany, at the "Y4Y Music Festival" in Thailand.

As a guest conductor he has performed in Belarus, Canada, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Montenegro, Rumania, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine,United States.

He has worked with soloists such as Alena Baeva, Yuri Bashmet, Ksenia Bashmet, Gautier Capuçon, Gianluca Cascioli, Corey Cerovsek, Barbara Hendricks, Denis Matsuev, Alexander Melnikov, Alexei Ogrintchouk, Anna Samuil, Isabelle van Keulen.

He is permanent guest conductor of the "Novaya Rossiya" State Symphony Orchestra in Moscow, since 2004. He conducted with them at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory Grand Hall works such as Mahler's Symphonies no. 1 and 5 or Verdi's Requiem. In October 2009 he once more met success with his interpretation of Strauss' "Also sprach Zarathustra" and recorded Igor Raykhelon's Viola Concerto with Yuri Bashmet, to be published in 2011.

In Switzerland, his country of residence and second citizenship, he had his debut in 2010 with "Orchestre de Chambre de Genève", conducting two concert with pianist Cyprien Katsaris, as well as with "Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne".

Since 2009 he conducts a staged production of "Histoire du Soldat", with soloists from the "Suisse Romande" and Verbier orchestras. A new tour is planned in 2012.

His performance of the Dies Irae from Verdi's Requiem has been watched and commented by near to one million people on YouTube.

In December 2010 Claudio Vandelli conducts a tour with Anna Netrebko and Erwin Schrott, going to Odessa,Kiev, Riga, St. Petersburg and ending in Moscow with a concert for President Medvedev at the Kremlin.