Benedetti Michelangeli was born near Brescia, in Italy. His date of birth is usually given as 5 January 1920. He himself once said that he was born 'during the first hour of the morning of 6 January 1920'. His father, who was a count and a lawyer by profession, was also a musician and a composer and began teaching music to Benedetti Michelangeli before he was four years old. Benedetti Michelangeli learned to play the violin at the age of three and would later study the instrument at the Venturi Institute in Brescia before switching to piano under Dr. Paulo Chimeri, who accepted him into his class following an audition. He also studied organ and composition. When he was nine, he began having private lessons with Giovanni Anfossi in Milan.
At ten years old, Benedetti Michelangeli began his formal music education at the Milan Conservatory, where he graduated with honours at the age of 14. Although Benedetti Michelangeli's parents were passionate about music, they did not want Arturo to become a pianist. In view of his family's attitude Benedetti Michelangeli studied medicine for several years although he never set music aside and continued to play regularly.
In May 1938, at the age of eighteen, Michelangeli began his international career by entering the Ysaÿe International Festival in Brussels, Belgium, where he finished seventh. A brief account of the competition, at which Emil Gilels took first prize and Moura Lympany second, is given by Arthur Rubinstein, who was one of the judges. According to Rubinstein, Benedetti Michelangeli gave "an unsatisfactory performance, but already showed his impeccable technique." A year later he won the first prize in the Geneva International Music Competition, where he was acclaimed as "a new Liszt" by pianist Alfred Cortot, a member of the judging panel, which was presided over by Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Upon winning the competition, Benito Mussolini gave Michelangeli a teaching position at the Martini Conservatory in Bologna, Italy.

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