Krzysztof Meyer first graduated from the Chopin Music High School in Krakow, then studied composition with Krzysztof Penderecki and music theory at the Music Academy there, completing his studies with honours in 1965. During the years 1964, 1966 and 1968 he studied several months of the year in France with Nadia Boulanger.

From 1966 until 1987 Meyer taught music-theoretical subjects at the Krakow Music Academy and held the professorship in music theory from 1975 until 1987. Since 1987 he has been Professor at the Music Academy in Cologne, where he leads a master class in composition. He was Chairman of the Polish Composers’ Union from 1985 until 1989. Meyer is a member of the Free Academy of the Arts in Mannheim.

Krzysztof Meyer, whose musical roots are in East European neoclassicism, is firmly convinced that the time has come again to think about a new kind of melodic and harmonic language. The melodic primordial cell as the germ for the formal design of the individual work is characteristic of his music. Meyer, who was also personally acquainted with Dmitri Shostakovich and wrote one of the most important Shostakovich biographies, is, moreover, a master of instrumentation.