Born in Saalfeld in Communist East Germany, Schönheit received his first musical education in piano and organ playing from his father, the organist and choirmaster Walter Schönheit, and was a member of the Thüringer Sängerknaben in Saalfeld, which his father had newly founded, until 1978.
[1] After the Abitur, Schönheit studied conducting from 1978 to 1985 at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig with Wolf-Dieter Hauschild, piano with Günther Kootz and, from 1982, organ with Wolfgang Schetelich.
[3] Schönheit worked with important conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Kurt Masur, Michel Plasson, Marek Janowski and Wolf-Dieter Hauschild.
Kurt Masur enabled him to make his debut as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic in 1995.
In recent years he has increasingly devoted himself to conducting, and since 1998 he has been the director of the Merseburg Hofmusik and the Collegium Vocale Leipzig.