Karin Wetzel’s compositional output encompasses works for solo instruments, ensembles, orchestra, electroacoustic music, live electronics, and installations. Her compositions have been performed by such musicians and ensembles as Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Proton Bern, SoloVoices, neuverBand, Mike Svoboda, Johannes Kalitzke, Antonio Politano, Steffen Schleiermacher, Ensemble Avantgarde, Leipziger Schlagzeugensemble, Prime Recorder Ensemble, Tel Aviv Saxophone Quartet, Ensemble du Bout du Monde, Rafal Zolkos (flute), Anna Kühn (Voice), Panagiotis Megarchiotis (guitar), Daniel Lippel (guitar), Eva Beneke (guitar), Mateusz Szczepkowski (violin), Dejana Seculic (violin), Andrea Kiefer (accordion), and the Duo Leise Dröhnung. Her works have been featured at festivals including the Archipel Festival Genève, Primavera en la Habana, ICMC Athens, cresc… Biennale für moderne Musik Frankfurt Rhein-Main, MATA Festival New York, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Festival Ensems Valencia, Tzlil Meudcan Festival, Sound Plasma Berlin, and Tage für neue Musik Weimar, among others.

She received scholarships from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes), the DAAD, and the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship. She has also been Artist in Residence at Villa Aurora in Los Angeles and at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. In 2021, she was awarded the Werkjahr by the City of Zurich.

Born in East Berlin, Karin Wetzel studied composition and music theory with Gerhard Tittel, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, Isabel Mundry, and Gesine Schröder, further enriching her education through exchange semesters at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the CNSM in Paris. She holds degrees in composition and music theory from the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig, a master’s degree in electroacoustic composition from the Zurich University of the Arts, where she studied with Germán Toro-Pérez, and an artistic-scientific doctorate from the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. Her research project Concepts of Poly-Works in the 20th/21st Century was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, and her book Das Werk im Werk – Konzepte des Poly-Werks was published by Fink/Brill.

From 2021 to 2025, she held a lectureship in artistic research at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, and since 2022 she has been professor of music theory at the Basel Academy of Music in Switzerland.