Education
Schweinitz studied composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, from 1971 to 1973 with Gernot Klussmann and from 1973 to 1975 with György Ligeti.
Schweinitz studied composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, from 1971 to 1973 with Gernot Klussmann and from 1973 to 1975 with György Ligeti.
He continued his studies at the Stanford University with John Chowning. He was a Stipendiat of the Villa Massimo in 1978, at the same time as Sarah Kirsch. In 1980 he taught at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse.
His opera Patmos, based on the Apocalypse of Street John was premiered in 1990 at the second Munich Biennale.
Schweinitz was from 1994 to 1996 a professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik "Franz Liszt", Weimar. In 2007 he succeeded James Tenney at the California Institute of the Arts.