was born in Frankfurt/Main and received his training in Germany from Karl-Albrecht Herrmann, Edith Peinemann and Max Rostal. He then studied violin at Indiana University in Bloomington/Indiana/USA from 1978 in the class of the legendary Josef Gingold and chamber music with György Sebök, Menahem Pressler and Georges Janzer.

From 1982 to 1995 he was 1st concertmaster of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra.

As a soloist Herwig Zack has played under the direction of conductors such as Karl Münchinger, Ferdinand Leitner, Dennis Russell Davies, Gilbert Varga, Yutaka Sado, Paul Nadler; his music-making partners have included Henryk Szeryng, Iona Brown, Trevor Pinnock, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Bernd Glemser, Peter Nagy, Nina Kogan and Grigori Zhislin. With his brother Bernd - professor of piano at the University of Music and Theatre in Rostock - there has long been a permanent duo violin and piano.

Today, the sought-after violinist is active throughout Europe, the USA, the Far East, South America, Australia and Africa. Recent concert tours have taken him to Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Romania, Greece, South America, China and Japan. Zack's repertoire includes not only well-known masterpieces but also numerous rarely performed compositions, and he is active in the field of contemporary music. Numerous radio recordings and CD productions on labels such as AVIE Records, Decca, Bayer Records, Podium, Mediaphon, Amadeo and others document his versatility.

The international press attests his playing "elegance and clarity" (New York Times), "exceptional virtuosity" (El Mercurio, Santiago de Chile), "sheer perfection" (South China Morning Post, Hong Kong), "an enchantingly beautiful, clear tone" (Ongaku No Tomo, Tokyo), "artistic superiority and maturity" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). Johannes Saltzwedel attested him in Kultur SPIEGEL "almost boundless empathy" and stated "a bouquet of pure perfection", for Robert Maxham (FANFARE) "not even Oistrakh gave the ballad by Ysaÿe the vibrant liveliness with which Zack plays it". For Roderic Dunnett (The Strad) he is "an established master," for Rob Barnett (MusicWeb International) "another Milstein in the making."

Herwig Zack, already an assistant professor at Indiana University in 1980, has led Meisterklassen throughout Europe, Japan, China, the United States, and Chile, and has been Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at the University of Music in Würzburg since October 1994. As of April 2015, he will additionally assume a visiting professorship at Tokyo University of the Arts - Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku.

Several of his students have been successful in international competitions and are scholarship holders of the German Foundation for Musical Life. Many others are members of renowned German orchestras, including the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg, some in leading positions.