Carsten Hennig was 15 years-old when he took his first piano and organ lessons. Hennig studied music education at the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar (1989 - 1992); film music at the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg (1992 - 1995); composition with Adriana Hölszky at the Musikhochschule Rostock (1997 - 2000); and at the Mozarteum University Salzburg (2000 - 2002).

He has received numerous grants including: Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (2001); Kulturstiftung Saxony in 2008, and artist residencies at Villa Massimo in Rome (2004) and Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades (2007). He has been artistic director of the Dresden Ensembles für zeitgenössische Musik El perro andaluz since 2009, the ensembles was awarded the Kunstförderpreis der Landeshauptstadt Dresden in 2011.