Born into a musical family, Marc Andreae studied in his native town of Zurich, as well as with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Franco Ferrara in Rome.

From 1969 to 1991 Andreae was musical director of the Swiss Italian Radio/Television Orchestra; from 1990 to 1993 musical and artistic director of the Angelicum Orchestra in Milan. Since 1989 he has been permanent conductor of the concert series SINFONIA of the Engadine Symphony Orchestra. 1999/2000 he was conductor in residence with the Symphony Orchestra Göttingen.

He guest conducts in Europe, America and Japan and leads such prestigious orchestras as the Munich – and Hamburg Philharmonic, the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Vienna, the Bamberg, Prague and the  Vienna Symphonic, Philharmonic of the French Radio, National Orchestra of France, of Belgium, Orchestra of the Academy Santa Cecilia in Rome, RAI Turin, Symphony Orchestra of Basel, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Suisse Romande in Geneva, the NHK and the Yomiuri in Tokyo.

Marc Andreae has participated in festivals such as Salzburg, Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Milan, Florence, St.Petersburg, Lucerne and Zurich. He recorded over 50 DVD, CD and LP, and was honoured by two Grand Prix du Disque.

In 1999, the culture foundation of the UBS bank, at the suggestion of Ulrich Meyer-Schoellkopf, superintendent of the Berlin Philharmonic, conferred upon him the honorary prize for extraordinary merits as a conductor.