He took part in more than a hundred recordings between 1963 and 2016, with groups such as Synopsis and Zentralquartett, and with his singer wife, Uschi Brüning.

He became a founding member of the Manfred Ludwig Sextet in 1964,[3] which was important for GDR jazz, playing with Joachim Kühn, Dorothy Ellison and Ruth Hohmann, among others.

[3] In 1971 he founded the jazz-rock band SOK with Ulrich Gumpert [de] and in 1973 was one of the founders of the free jazz formation Synopsis.

[2] The 1973 recording Just for fun in a quartet with trombonist Conny Bauer, Koch and percussionist Wolfgang Winkler [de], published by FMP, was the first of jazz musicians from both East and West, and resulted in further collaboration in recordings, concerts, and tours, such as the Globe Unity Orchestra, the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band and the Tony Oxley Celebration Orchestra,[6] in Europe and the United States.

[8] He performed with Harry Miller, Heinz Becker, Joe Sachse [de] and Tony Oxley in 1981 as part of the Jazzwerkstatt Peitz.

[7] Petrowsky became especially popular beginning in 1983 through his joint concerts with his wife, the singer Uschi Brüning,[5] whom he married in 1982.

[7] On the occasion of his 80th birthday, JazzFest Berlin honored Petrowsky with a Jubilee evening featuring three of his important groups, the Zentralquartett, the group Ruf der Heimat (with Thomas Borgmann, Christoph Winckel [de], and Willi Kellers [de]), which has been in existence since 1992, and the ensemble Ornette et cetera, with Brüning, Jeanfrançois Prins and Michael Griener.