Born in 1938 in Westfield, Massachusetts, he began his musical education with Charles Mackey in Springfield. He then studied under the guidance of Walter Piston, Roger Sessions and Milton Babbitt at Harvard University and at Princeton University. In 1960 he went to Italy to study with Luigi Dallapiccola and it was there that he embarked on a career as a pianist. He specialized in new music, performing together with Severino Gazzelloni.
Collaboration with Christian Wolff and David Behrman, as well as meetings with John Cage and David Tudor, exerted a fundamental influence on Rzewski's creative development. In the mid 60s, together with Alvin Curran and Richard Teitelbaum, he founded mev ('Musica Electronica Viva'), an ensemble which soon made pioneering achievements in the field of improvised music and live electronics. In collaboration with composers representing the 'serious' and jazz avantgarde (such as Anthony Braxton and Steve Lacy) mev has developed a method of creating music as a spontaneous, collective effort, an approach that was taken up by other experimental groups at the time.
In the 70s Rzewski continued to experiment, treating style and language as structural elements. In compositions for larger complements of instruments written between 1979 and 1981 Rzewski developed experimental and graphical notation. During the 1980s he also searched for new applications of the twelve-note technique. His greatest compositional achievement to date is the two-hour oratorio The Triumph of Death, based on fragments of the play Die Ermittlung by Peter Weiss (1965).
Since 1977 Frederic Rzewski has been a professor of composition at the Royal Conservatory in Liège. He also taught at the Yale School of Music, the University of Cincinnati, the State Universities in New York and Buffalo, the California Institute of Arts and the University of California at San Diego. He also collaborated with Mills College, the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin and the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe.

Selected works (since 1980): The Price of Oil for two voices or vocal ensembles, eight amplified wind bands and two identical instrumental ensembles (1980), Le silence des espaces infinis for female choir, any solo instrument, seven instrumental groups and tape (1980), The Housewife's Lament for harpsichord (1980), Snacks for voice, ad libitum mixed choir and ad libitum ensemble (1981), Antigone-Legend for voice and piano (set to texts by Bertold Brecht; 1982), Songs for voice and piano (1973-83), Satyrica for jazz group (1983), Una breve storia d'estate for three flutes and orchestra (1983), A Machine for two pianos (1984), Mayakovsky for loudspeaker, string quartet and piano (1984), Lost and Found for percussion and loudspeaker (1985), To the Earth for percussion and loudspeaker (1985), The Persians, instrumental theatre (after Aeschylus; 1985), Eggs for piano (1986), Chains, twelve tv operas, for voice and six-performer-ensemble (1986), The Waves for loudspeaker and ensemble (1988), The Triumph of Death, oratorio (to a text by Peter Weiss; 1987-88), Roses for flute, clarinet, trumpet, tuba, violin, cello, accordion and percussion (1989), Tinkleberries for voice (or voices) and instrument (or instruments) (1980-90), Whangdoodles for violin, dulcimer, piano and ad libitum percussion instruments (1990), Sonata for Piano (1991), De Profundis for piano (1991-92), Whimwhams for string quartet and marimba (1993), Night Crossing with Fisherman for two pianos (1994), Family Scenes for chamber ensemble (1995), Stop the War! for mixed choir (1995), Stop the Testing! for mixed choir (1995), When the Wind Blows for chamber ensemble (1996), Scratch Symphony for orchestra (1997), Logique for voice, flute, cello and piano (set to texts by Paul Verlaine; 1997), Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano (1998), Cradle Rock for chamber ensemble (1999), Movable Types for orchestra (1999), Pocket Symphony for chamber ensemble (2000), The Road, a series of seven compositions for piano (Turns, 1995; Tracks, 1996; Tramps, 1997; Stops, 1998; A Few Knocks, 1999; Travelling with Children, 1999; Final Preparations, 1999-2002).