Fogliani studied composition at the Conservatorio "G. B. Martini" in Bologna with Francesco Carluccio [it] and graduated with honors in orchestral conducting at the Milan Conservatory, under Vittorio Parisi.

He then furthered his musical training at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena where he studied conducting with Gianluigi Gelmetti and composition with Franco Donatoni and Ennio Morricone.

[1] Fogliani's debut at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro in 2001 with Il viaggio a Reims[2] was the beginning of an international career.

In 2005, at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, he conducted Paisiello's Il Socrate immaginario [] in the new version by Roberto De Simone; the work was reprised in the 2006/07 season at La Scala in Milan.

He has conducted and recorded several titles in the Rossini repertoire (Otello, Il signor Bruschino, La scala di seta, L'occasione fa il ladro, Edipo Coloneo, Ciro in Babilonia, La Cenerentola, Il turco in Italia, Semiramide, Adina) as well as some of the first performances in modern times of Mercadante's Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamaccio and I briganti and Vaccaj's La sposa di Messina[6] at the Rossini in Wildbad festival, where he has been the Music Director since 2011.