Hindemith was born in Hanau on November 16, 1895, and studied at the Hock Conservatory in Frankfurt. At the age of 13, while at the conservatory, he supported himself by playing in dance bands and at theaters and cinemas. From 1915 to 1923 he was concertmaster and then conductor of the Frankfurt Opera orchestra, and in 1921 he helped organize the famous Amar-Hindemith Quartet, in which he played the viola. During the 1920s Hindemith gained recognition as a major composer. He became professor of musical composition at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik in 1927.

In 1934 his work was banned by Hitler's government because of its extreme modernism. Shortly afterward he went to Turkey to reorganize the national musical studies program.

He went to the U.S. in 1940 and taught at Yale University until 1953, when he returned to Europe to teach at the University of Zürich. He had become an American citizen in 1946. Hindemith died in Frankfurt on December 28, 1963.