Born into a musical family - his father, Hendrik Andriessen (1892-1981), is also a composer - Louis Andriessen studied with Kees van Baren at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and Luciano Berio in Milan and Berlin.

His work, inspired by Platonic philosophy (eg De Staat, inspired by The Republic), is diverse and has the particularity of comprising scores for saxophone (including Hout, tenor saxophone, marimba, guitar and piano, written in 1991).

Louis Andriessen has touched all genres: first in twelve-tone serialism and then in post-modernism, inspired by the minimalist music of American composers (especially Steve Reich) and polytonal or consonant harmony. Collaborative works with other artists include a series of dance projects, the full length theatre piece De Materie created with Robert Wilson for the Netherlands Opera, and three works created with Peter Greenaway: the film M is for Man, Music, Mozart, and the stage works ROSA Death of a Composer  and Writing to Vermeer, premiered at the Netherlands Opera in 1994 and 1999 respectively.