Born in Merseburg, Schneider studied music education, Germanistik and musicology as well as violin, piano and singing at the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg.
Schneider completed his studies with a diploma and worked as an editorial assistant at the Rundfunk der DDR.
From 1970, he became Spielleiter at the Komische Oper Berlin and worked under Walter Felsenstein, Götz Friedrich and Horst Bonnet [de], among others.
Since 1970, guest productions have taken him to other houses such as the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam, the Nationale Opera en Ballet [de] Amsterdam and the Staatstheater Cottbus as well as to Deutscher Fernsehfunk.
Since 1982, he had worked at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" Berlin, first as Oberassistent [de] and from 1986 as lecturer for "scenic teaching" in the vocal department.