Born in Aachen, Lothar Koenigs studied piano and conducting at the Cologne Conservatory. During his student years he held the post of First Guest Conductor at the Orquesta Sinfonica de Chile. After graduating he was invited by Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa to conduct at Tanglewood Festival for three years. Although this collaboration offered him the chance of a rapid success, Koenigs decided he would follow a rather more traditional conducting career as Kapellmeister in several German opera houses.

His last post was General Music Director in Osnabrück until 2003. During this time he concentrated on developing his symphonic repertoire and also conducted more than 40 operas. Already at an early stage, he received invitations from the Brucknerorchester Linz, the Komische Oper Berlin, the WDR Cologne, the Philharmonica Hungarica and Moscow's Helicon Opera.

From 2001 to 2004 he conducted Boheme, Carmen, Eugene Onegin, Magic Flute at the Hamburg State Opera as well as the Italian premiere of Giorgio Battistellis Prova d´Orchestra at the Rome Opera, Busoni´s Turandot in Sassari, a new production of Janacek´ Katja Kabanova at Teatro La Fenice in Venice.

Lothar Koenigs also led such orchestras as Beethoven Orchester in Bonn, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Radio Orchestra Saarbrücken, RAI Orchestra in Turin, DSO in Berlin, Orchestra dell´Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rom and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. At the request of the composer he conducted music by Luciano Berio with the Orchestra Sinfonica de Sao Paulo.

In Spring 2004 he conducted a widely acclaimed Wozzeck at the Opera de Lyon and was reinvited to conduct the Janacek trilogy (Jenufa, Katia Kabanova and Makropoulos´Case). He also led Henze´s Elegy for Young Lovers in Ancona which received the Premio Abiati of the Italian Critics.

In 2005/2006 he conducts Don Giovanni in Dresden, the Orchestra dell´Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the RAI Orchestra in Turin, the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin (RSB) and Idomeneo.in Cologne.

In 2006/2007 he conducted new productions of Lohengrin at the Opéra de Lyon, Freischutz at the Semperoper Dresden, Khovancina at the Welsh National Opera and Jenufa at the Teatro alla Scala in Milano. He also toured with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Ben Heppner (Wagner programme). He had his debut with the Wiener Symphoniker at the Bregenz Festival.