Schneider was born in Göttingen in 1964 and received piano and harpsichord lessons at an early age.
He took his school-leaving examination at the Alte Kantonsschule Aarau [de], where the composer János Tamás also taught.
[1] As part of the Lucerne Festival Schneider attended master classes with Edison Denisov in 1991 and 1993.
[2] Schneider worked from 1984 to 1993 as music critic for the Aargauer Zeitung and the Badener Tagblatt.
[3] From 2006 to 2019, Schneider served as managing director of the Swiss Cultural Foundation Künstlerhaus Boswil [de].