Musician (viola da gamba), composer, he was born in Milan. Compared by the critics to Jasha Heifetz (“Diapason”) for his virtuosity, or called “The Alchemist of the sound” (“Diario de Sevilla”) for the intensity and versatility of his musical interpretations, Vittorio Ghielmi attracted notice while he was still very young for his new approach to the viola da gamba and to the sound of the baroque repertoire. His fieldwork within old musical traditions surviving in forgotten parts of the world and bringing new perspectives to the interpretation of European "early music" led to him being presented the “Erwin Bodky Award” (Cambridge, Massachusetts USA 1997). In 1995 he was the winner of the "Concorso Internazionale Romano Romanini per strumenti ad arco" (Brescia). He studied the gamba with Roberto Gini, Wieland Kuijken (Bruxelles) and Christophe Coin (Paris).

As a viola da gamba soloist or as a conductor, in the field of classical and ancient music, he has appeared with the most famous orchestras (such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra - playing a Graun Concerto in the Hollywood Bowl; the London Philharmonia, the Wiener-Concertverein, Il Giardino Armonico, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Royal College of Music orchestra, Granada symphonic orchestra etc.). He is one of the few gamba players who is regularly invited to play as a solo performer with orchestras. In duo with his brother Lorenzo Ghielmi or with Luca Pianca he also performs recitals in the most important venues all around the world. He has been invited to play in the world première of many new compositions (Nadir Vassena, Bagatelle trascendentali for viola da gamba, lute and orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker Hall, 2006; Uri Caine "Concerto for viola da gamba and orchestra", Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Bozar Bruxelles 2008; Caine Concerto per viola da gamba, basset-horn and Orchestra, Passau 2012 etc.).

From 2007 to 2011 he worked as Riccardo Muti's assistant in Salzburg festival. In 2007 he conceived and conducted the spectacle “7 mystical visions” for Semana de musica religiosa, Cuenca (Madrid), where he collaborated with the American film maker Marc Reshovsky (Hollywood) and conducted the Swedish choir "Rilke Ensemble" (G.Eriksson). He has also been artist in residence in Musikfest Stuttgart 2010, in Segovia festival 2011, in Bozar Bruxelles 2011 etc.

His ensemble Il Suonar Parlante, appearing as a Viols Quartet or an Orchestra, is devoted to a new investigation of the early music repertoire as well as to the creation of new projects; it has also performed with important jazz players such as Kenny Wheeler, Uri Caine, Paolo Fresu, Jim Black, Don Byron, Markus Stockhausen, Nguyen Lê, pop singers like Vinicio Capossela, flamenco stars such as Carmen Linares, traditional Asian musicians like the Afghan virtuosi of the "Ensemble Kaboul" (Khaled Arman).

The collaboration of Vittorio Ghielmi with traditional players and in particular with the sardinian traditional singers of the Cuncordu de Orosei, is documented in the film “The Heart of Sound - a musical journey with Vittorio Ghielmi”, BFMI (Salzburg-Hollywood).

He recorded around 40 CDs as soloist winning many critic prizes (Harmonia Mundi, Teldec, Sony, Naïve, Winterandwinter, Passacaille etc.).

Vittorio Ghielmi is professor at the Mozarteum Universität Salzburg and at the Conservatorio Luca Marenzio (Brescia), and has given several master-classes in Academies and Universities.

He has published studies on music and previously unpublished scores (Fuzeau, Minkoff), as the worldwide known method for viola da gamba (Biordi-Ghielmi, ed. Ut-Orpheus). He plays a viol made by Michel Colichon, Paris 1688.