Stephan Krehl was born in Leipzig in 1864 and studied at the music conservatories in Dresden and Leipzig, where he became a protégé of the renowned professor Salomon Jadassohn. As a young composer and pianist, Krehl was employed at the Conservatory of Music in Karlsruhe from 1889 until 1902, when he was appointed to the faculty of the Leipzig Conservatory. Krehl taught theory and composition there from 1902 until his death in 1924, acting as Rector in his later years and thus joining a line of distinguished directors which began with Felix Mendelssohn in 1843.