[1][2] His father was a bridge-building engineer and amateur musician, and his great-grandfather was the Leipzig superintendent Oskar Pank [de].

From 1948 to 1952, he attended the Landesschule Pforta, and afterwards until 1954 at the Thomasschule zu Leipzig where he was a member of the Thomanerchor conducted by Günther Ramin.

[3] In 1980, Pank left the orchestra[3] and took up a teaching position at the Musikhochschule, as a lecturer from 1984,[4] and as professor of cello and viol from 1988.

[1][5] Pank has performed in chamber music, such as in the Baroque Trio Schwarz/Pank/Becker-Foss (with singer Gotthold Schwarz and continuo player Hans Christoph Becker-Foss),[6] with the Leipziger Concert and with the Sächsisches Vocalensemble [de].

His son Sebastian Pank is also a musician and the founder and owner of the record label Raumklang at Schloss Goseck [de], which specialises in Early music.

[4][11][12] On 7 October 2018, Pank was awarded the Order of Merit of Saxony-Anhalt by the minister-president, Reiner Haseloff, at the opening of the 7th Bach-Abel Competition in the Bachsaal of Schloss Köthen.