Padding was born in Amsterdam, and was taught by Louis Andriessen (composition), Geert van Keulen (instrumentation) and Fania Chapiro (piano).
He is the head of the Composition Department at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where he has mentored composers such as Katarina Glowicka.
Padding's collaboration, since 1998, with the avant-garde quintet Ensemble LOOS has resulted in a number of works, both with and without electronics.
The ensemble played the premiere of the opera Tattooed Tongues, to a libretto by Friso Haverkamp, at the Warsaw Autumn Festival in 2001.
Additionally he has made radio documentaries, and was the longtime piano accompanist of the modern dance company led by Krisztina de Châtel.