Johannes Schöllhorn studied composition with Klaus Huber, Emmanuel Nunes, and Mathias Spahlinger, music theory with Peter Förtig, and conducting with Peter Eötvös. His talent as a composer was noticed during a composition workshop at Royaumont in 1992, and in 1994, Ensemble Recherche recorded a monographic CD of his works. In 1997, he was selected by the Ensemble Intercontemporain reading committee to compose a new work for the group. In the same year, his chamber opera, les petites filles modèles (1995) was toured in France and notably performed at the Bastille Opera. Schöllhorn went on to receive numerous commissions from ensembles including Ensemble Modern, Intercontemporain, Instant donné, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien, Ascolta and Neue Ensemble, as well as from the Radio Orchestras of Cologne (WDR) and Stuttgart (SWR), the Berlin DSO, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and London Philharmonia.

From 1995 to 2000, Schöllhorn taught at the Winterthur Musikhochschule (Switzerland) while also directing the Freiburg Musikhochschule Ensemble für Neue Musik. From 2001 to 2009, he taught composition at the Hannover Hochschule für Musik und Theater, before being named Composition Professor and Director of the Institut für Neue Musik at the Cologne Hochschule für Musik. He has also taught at Royaumont, the Ictus Seminar, Takefu, the Bartok Festival, the Paris, Tianjin and Beijing Conservatoires, Tokyo Ondai University, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Centro San Fedele Milan, and in Kiev. In 2008, he was a participating member in the “into” project in Hong Kong. In October 2017, he became Composition Professor and Director of the Institute for New Music at the Freiburg Musikhochschule.

Schöllhorn has received numerous composition prizes, and was awarded the presigious Praetorius Musikpreis in 2009. He was composer-in-residence at the Heidenheim Opera Festival in 2011, and with the Mulhouse Symphony Orchestra from 2013 to 2015.