Christoph Schmetterer started taking cello lessons at the age of eight. Not until he was nineteen did he start composing and playing the piano, which has become his preferred instrument.

His first works were rags, and ragtime remains in the centre of his almost 200 compositions. Apart from that, he composes dances, marches and sacred music. He writes not only for piano, but also for orchestra, band and choir.

He plays the organ at mass every Sunday in the small village of Wildungsmauer near Vienna. He is director of the wind band in the town of Bruck an der Leitha, where he also plays trombone.

Christoph has doctor's degrees in history and law. He is a legal historian in the Austrian Academy of Sciences and a trainee lawyer in a law office.