Born in Munich in 1973, he studied the clarinet with Gerd Starke at the University of Music and Performing Arts in his home city and later with Charles Neidich at the Juilliard School in New York. Already at the age of eleven he took up composition lessons with Kay Westermann, which led to his composition studies with Wilfried Hiller, Hans Werner Henze, Heiner Goebbels, and Wolfgang Rihm. Widmann’s great passion as a clarinettist is chamber music and he regularly performs with such artists as Tabea Zimmermann, Heinz Holliger, András Schiff, Kim Kashkashian, and Hélène Grimaud. He has also achieved great success as a soloist and fellow composers often dedicate their works to him (e.g. Wolfgang Rihm’s Music for Clarinet and Orchestra, Aribert Reimann’s Cantus, Heinz Holliger’s Rechant). In 2001, Jörg Widmann was appointed professor of clarinet at the Freiburg University of Music, where he also teaches composition since 2009.
Jörg Widmann has received numerous prizes for his compositions, including the Belmont Prize for Contemporary Music from the Forberg-Schneider Foundation (1998), Schneider-Schott Music Prize, Paul Hindemith Prize (both in 2002), Encouragement Award from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation (2003) as well as the Arnold Schönberg Prize (2004). In 2006, Widmann was granted the Composition Prize from the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra as well as the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize from the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic. In 2009, he was awarded the Elise L. Stoeger Prize of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society in New York, and in 2013, the GEMA German Music Authors Award.
He is a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg) in Berlin and a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, the Free Academy of the Arts in Hamburg, and the German Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was composer-in-residence of the German Symphony Orchestra of Berlin, Cleveland Orchestra, Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival, Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Vienna Konzerthaus.

Major works: 180 beats per minute for string sextet (1993), Fantasie for solo clarinet (1993), Fleurs du mal, piano sonata after Baudelaire (1996–97), String Quartet no. 1 (1997), Isle of Sirens for 19 string instruments (1997), Sieben Abgesänge auf eine tote Linde to words by Diana Kempff (1997), Fieberphantasie for piano, string quartet and clarinet (1999), Ikarische Klage for 10 string instruments (1999), ...umdüstert... for chamber ensemble (1999–2000), Dunkle Saiten for cello, orchestra and two female voices (1999– 2000), Etudes for violin (1995–2002), Freie Stücke for ensemble or chamber orchestra (2002), ad absurdum, concerto for trumpet and small orchestra (2002), Das Gesicht im Spiegel, music theatre to a libretto by Roland Schimmelpfennig (2002–10), String Quartet no. 2 Choralquartett (2003–6), String Quartet no. 3 Jagdquartett (2003), Lied for orchestra (2003–9), Lichtstudie I–VI for violin, viola, accordion, clarinet, piano and orchestra (2001–4), Chor for orchestra (2004), Octet for clarinet, horn, bassoon, two violins, viola, cello and double bass (2004), String Quartet no. 4 (2004–5), Air for horn (2005), Messe for large orchestra (2005), String Quartet no. 5 Versuch über die Fuge with soprano (2005), Labyrinth for 48 string instruments (2005), Armonica for glass harmonica and orchestra (2006), Elegy for clarinet and orchestra (2006), Quintet for oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon and piano (2006), Zweites Labyrinth for orchestral groups (2006), Eleven Humoresques for piano (2007), Violin Concerto (2007), Antiphon for orchestral groups (2007–8), 24 Duets for violin and cello (2008), Con brio, concert overture for orchestra (2008), Am Anfang for orchestra with recited Old Testament texts (2009), Dubairische Tänze for instrumental ensemble (2009), Oboe Concerto (2009–10), Teufel Amor, symphonic hymn after Schiller (2009/11), Intermezzi for piano (2010), Liebeslied for eight instruments (2010), Babylon, opera in seven scenes to a libretto by Peter Sloterdijk (2011–12), Flûte en suite for flute and orchestral groups (2011), Drittes Labyrinth for soprano and orchestral groups (2013–14), Skorpion for countertenor, clarinet/bass clarinet, cello and accordion, to words by Peter Sloterdijk (2013).