He studied musicology, psychology, philosophy and music composition at the Paris-Lodron-University and at the Mozarteum Salzburg and University of Vienna.
In 1988/1989 he was granted a research fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of the University of Hamburg, where he also habilitated in 1993.
Revers has been married to the pianist and university professor Lucy Revers-Chin since 1982.
Since 1996 Revers has been full professor for music history at the Kunstuniversität Graz.
Revers' research interests include Gustav Mahler, Jean Sibelius, Mozart, the music of the 18th to 21st centuries, but also the reception of East Asia in the history of western music.