Ernst Krenek was born in Austria in 1900. He began composing at the age of nine and began studying composition with Schreker in Vienna in 1916. From 1920 to 1923 he attended the University of Music in Berlin, along with Hába, Rathaus, Goldschmidt, and others. His encounters during this time with such composers as Busoni, Schnabel, and Scherchen would be decisive in defining his own atonal style. Between 1921 and 1926 Krenek participated regularly in the Donaueschinger Musiktage and composed prolifically, completing his first three symphonies - the premiere of his Symphony No. 2 in 1923 was highly controversial – as well as his first four string quartets and several operas, (Die Zwingburg, Orpheus und Eurydike, and Der Sprung über den Schatten). In 1924, he married Anna Mahler, the daughter of Gustav and Alma Mahler. That same year Alma asked him to complete the unfinished Tenth Symphony of her late husband, of which he ultimately finished revised versions of the first and third movements.

In 1925, Paul Bekker took Krenek on as his assistant at the State Opera in Kassel, a position Krenek held for two years, during which he composed Jonny spielt auf, a mixture of tonal writing and jazz styles that brought him international fame.

In 1928, the composer entered a neoromantic phase, at the same time when he married the actress Bertha Haas. Compositions from this period show the strong influence of Schubert above all (Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen).

Krenek met and became friends with Theodor Adorno, and he met Karl Kraus, who would go on to exert a strong influence on his thinking. Krenek also grew close to Berg and Webern, founded the journal 23 in 1932, and turned to 12-tone composing. The opera Karl V is emblematic of his work during this time.

In 1937, Krenek’s adaptation of Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea afforded him his first opportunity to travel to the United States, and he settled there the following year, after being banned by the Nazi government and placed on their list of degenerate composers.

After that, Krenek divided his time between teaching and composition. His teaching career in various universities allowed him to expand his interest in Gregorian chant and the music of the 14^th and 15^th centuries, which helped inspire the composition of Lamentatio Jeremiae prophetae (1941–1942). He published major theoretical works in which he offered an original and personal view of his approach to twelve-tone composing. During the Second World War, he held teaching positions at Vassar College, at the Universities of Michigan and Wisconsin, and, most significantly, at Hamline University in Minnesota, where he trained numerous students, including George Perle. He became an American citizen in 1945, and moved to Los Angeles, where he lived until 1966. In 1950, he was invited to teach composition at the Darmstadt Summer Courses, where he returned in 1954 and 1958. His time there allowed him to establish links to the young generation of composers that included Boulez, Stockhausen, Nono, and Ligeti. In parallel, on the invitation of Herbert Eimert in 1955, he worked at the Cologne Electronic Music Studio. His research combined reflection of serial composing, electronic music, and medieval counterpoint, an exploration he deepened using the music of Johannes Ockeghem.

In 1966 he settled in Palm Springs, California with his third wife, Gladys Nordenstrom, and continued to teach as a guest professor in universities in the United States and Europe.

The Ernst Krenek Archive was established in 1978 at the University of California, San Diego; a second archive was established at the Vienna City Library. After his death, the Ernst Krenek Society was established in Palm Springs in 1994; subsequently, the archive and the estate of Krenek were transferred to the Institut Ernst Krenek Privatstiftung. Founded in 2004 by Krenek’s widow, Gladys Nordenstrom-Krenek at the University of Krems, it seeks to preserve his artistic legacy and make it accessible to both researchers and the general public.