Born in Berlin, Henschel grew up in Nürnberg where he attended high school and studied piano and conducting.
He studied voice at the Musikhochschule München and made his stage debut at the 1990 Munich Biennale in Michèle Reverdy's Le Précepteur.
[1] After working in Bonn and Stuttgart, in 1997, Henschel's international career began when he took on the title role in Henze's Der Prinz von Homburg at the Deutsche Oper Berlin under Götz Friedrich and Busoni's Doktor Faust with the Opéra National de Lyon under Kent Nagano.
The focus of his repertoire has been the works of Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert, along with Hugo Wolf, Gustav Mahler and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
[1] He has made numerous recordings on CD, including with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra under René Jacobs, Bach's St Matthew Passion with the Concentus Musicus Wien, under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and the recording of Busoni's Doktor Faust, which in 2001 won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.