Karl-Friedrich Dürr was born in Stuttgart. During his period at university, where he was awarded a doctorate and taught for a short time in schools, he studied singing privately with Günter Reich. He made his début in 1980 in the title-rôle of Rihm's Jakob Lenz in Stuttgart and has sung leading Mozart rôles, including Figaro in the Zadek staging, Leporello, Bartolo in the new staging of Le nozze di Figaro and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, as well as Klingsor, Biterolf and Kothner. He sang Eisenhardt in Zimmermann's Die Soldaten, the Animal-Tamer / Athlete in Lulu, Joe in Mahagonny, the Police Chief in Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, the Cook in The Love for Three Oranges, Herr von Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier, Third Citizen / Third Senator in Die Gezeichneten, the Maestro in Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali, Venanzio in I pazzi per progetto, Crespel in Les contes d'Hoffmann, the Sacristan in Tosca and First Soldier in Salome. He made a guest appearance as Leporello at the Dresden Semperoper, as Herr von Faninal in Dresden, Bonn and Düsseldorf, as Eisenhardt at the Paris Bastille Opéra, with appearances also in Trieste and New York. In 1998 he was given the title of Kammersänger.