Born in 1940 in Buenos Aires, she completed her music studies at the Conservatorio Nacional Superior de Música in the class of Roberto García Morillo. During the years 1965–66 she participated in courses led by Gerardo Gandini, Iannis Xenakis, among others, as part of her scholarship from the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales of the Instituto Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires. In 1968–71 she continued her composition studies with Wolfgang Fortner at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg on a grant from the DAAD. In 1984, she stayed in Berlin as a guest of the Berlin Artists’ Programme, also organized by DAAD.
Her compositions have received awards in Argentina (from the Fondo Nacional de las Artes and the City of Buenos Aires), Germany (Akademie der Künste in Berlin) and Uruguay (Juventudes Musicales) and have been performed at concerts and festivals in Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
Graciela Paraskevaídis has also been extensively engaged in teaching. In 1985–92 she held a teaching post at the Universidad Nacional in Montevideo. She also gives private lessons, lectures, and conducts seminars and workshops at both summer and regular courses at the music academies of Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Uruguay) and Europe (Austria, Germany, Greece, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom).
Since 1975, she has been publishing essays on contemporary Latin American music, working with specialist music magazines such as Pauta, Revista Musical Chilena, and MusikTexte. In 1990–99, she was coeditor of the World New Music Magazine, the yearbook of the ISCM. She is also the author of two books, La obra sinfónica de Eduardo Fabini (1992) and Luis Campodónico, compositor (1999), and coeditor of www.latinoamerica-musica.net.
During the years 1975–89 she was a member of the organizing committee of the Latin American Course of Contemporary Music (CLAMC). She also belongs to the Núcleo Música Nueva de Montevideo and the Sociedad Uruguaya de Música Contemporánea. Since 1975 she has lived in Uruguay.
Major works (since 1992): sendas for eight instruments (1992), el nervio de arnold for guitar (1992), algún sonido de la vida for two oboes (1993), nada for soprano (1993), otra vez for piano (1994), pero están for soprano, flute and oboe (1994), No quiero oír ya más campanas for 14 winds (1995), dos piezas para oboe y piano (1995), en abril for piano (1996), hacen así for six percussionists (1996), ...a hombros del ruiseñor for piano (1997), libres en el sonido presos en el sonido for flute, clarinet, piano, violin and cello (1997), suono sogno for violin (1997), discordia for nine voices (1998), contra la olvidación for piano (1998), solos for alto flute and guitar (1998), piezas de bolsillo for percussion quartet (1999), dos piezas for piano (2001), ...Il remoto silenzio for cello (2002), Soy de un país donde for trumpet, horn, trombone and tuba (2002), Aruaru for mezzo-soprano, clarinet, violin, cello and piano (2003), y allá andará según se dice for pinkillos, tarkas, sikus, two wankaras and one pair of claves (2005), tris for oboe, bassoon and double bass (2005), ático for piccolo and sopranino recorder (2006), réplica for harpsichord (2007), alibi for saxophone quartet (2008), cada cual for piano four hands (2010), ...bajo otros cielos... for winds and Andean percussion (2011), sin ir más lejos for three instruments (2013).
