After studying piano with Gernot Sieber in Munich, Arnulf Herrmann went on to study composition and musicology in Dresden (W. Krätzschmar, J. Herchet), Paris (G. Grisey, E. Nuñes) and Berlin (F. Goldmann - composition, G. Neuwirth/ H. Fladt/J. Mainka – theory). In 1999/2000 he took part in the one-year course Composition and New Technologies at IRCAM/Paris on a DAAD postgraduate scholarship, completing his studies with a supplementary degree in composition at the Academy of Music Hanns Eisler in Berlin under Hanspeter Kyburz from 2000 - 2002.

Arnulf Herrmann works with many leading international ensembles, including the Ensemble Modern, the Klangforum Wien and the Ensemble Intercontemporain. Performances at festivals in Germany and abroad, such as Wien Modern, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Ultraschall Berlin, Eclat Stuttgart, Musica Straßburg etc.

He was a participant in the first International Composition Seminar of the Ensemble Modern 2004 and was selected by the Ensemble Intercontemporain/IRCAM Paris’s Comité de Lecture for a commissioned work for the Ensemble Intercontemporain in the 2007/2008 season.

Various prizes and awards: including the Hanns Eisler Preis for composition (2001), the Kompositionspreis der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart (2003), the International Rostrum of Composers (2006) and the Förderpreis Musik of the Kunstpreis Berlin (2008).

Since 2004 Arnulf Herrmann has taught composition as a major at the Academy of Music Hanns Eisler in Berlin. From winter semester 2006, he has also been teaching instrumentation.
In 2008 he will be scholarship holder at the Villa Massimo in Rome.