A native of Gniew, Knorr was taken to southern Russia at the age of four, where he was surrounded by Russian folk music.

In 1874, he became a teacher and in 1878 director of music theory instruction at the Imperial Kharkiv Conservatory, in what is now Ukraine.

Among his pupils were Bernhard Sekles, Ernest Bloch, Vladimir Sokalskyi, Ernst Toch and Hans Pfitzner, as well as the English-speaking composers such as William Beatton Moonie[2] and friends that become known as the Frankfurt Group: Balfour Gardiner, Percy Grainger, Norman O'Neill, Roger Quilter and Cyril Scott.

[3] His compositions include three operas, a symphony, a piano quartet and several sets of variations and suites, as well as pedagogical works of counterpoint and fugue, but he was not prolific.

[1] His 1888 piece for cello and piano, Variationen über ein Thema von K. Klimsch, has been recorded by Adrian Bradbury and Andrew West.