[3] He received his first clarinet lessons at the age of seven with Wilfried Berk at the Hanover Music School.

[10] In 2008, Manz won the first prize in clarinet at the ARD International Music Competition, which had not been awarded for 40 years.

[12][7] In his debut at the Tonhalle Zürich on 4 May 2010 he played Mozart's Clarinet Concerto with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie conducted by their designated chief conductor Eugene Tzigane.

[3] In the 2021–22 season, he was on an Asia tour with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center with concerts in Taiwan, Japan and China.

[19] His chamber music partners have been Felix Klieser, Tanja Tetzlaff and Wen Xiao Zheng,[19] performing Beethoven's Septet.