[1] Koenigs received his general secondary education at Aachen's Kaiser-Karls-Gymnasium, while studying piano and conducting at the Cologne Conservatory.
His freelance work since his Osnabrück tenure has included engagements at the Opéra National de Lyon of Wozzeck (2003), a Janáček cycle of Jenufa, Káťa Kabanová and The Makropulos Affair (2004), and Lohengrin (2006).
[5] He made his Proms conducting debut on 17 July 2010 with a concert performance of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,[6] with Bryn Terfel as Hans Sachs, in the first complete performance of Die Meistersinger at The Proms.
[7] In the United States, Koenigs made his first conducting appearance at the Metropolitan Opera in December 2008 with Don Giovanni.
[8] He returned to the Metropolitan Opera as a substitute for James Levine in the new William Kentridge production, in November 2015, of Alban Berg's Lulu.