Philippe Herreweghe was born in Ghent and attended both the University and the Conservatory of Music there, studying piano with Marcel Gazelle. During this time he began conducting and founded the Collegium Vocale Gent in 1970. He was invited by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt, who had noticed his innovative work, to participate in their recordings of the complete cantatas of J.S. Bach.

Herreweghe's energetic and authentic approach to baroque music soon attracted praise. In 1977 he founded the ensemble La Chapelle Royale in Paris, with which he performed music from France's Golden Age. From 1982 to 2002 he was Conductor artistic director of the Académies Musicales de Saintes. During this period he founded several ensembles with which he produced historically informed interpretations of repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to contemporary music. These include the Ensemble Vocal Européen, which specializes in Renaissance polyphony, and the Orchestre des Champs Élysées, founded in 1991 with the aim of performing the pre-Romantic and Romantic repertoire on original instruments. Since 2009, Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent have been actively working on the development of a large European-level symphonic choir. Since 2001 Philippe Herreweghe has been Conductor artistic director of the Crete Senesi Academy, since 2017 known as the Collegium Vocale Crete Senesi festival in Tuscany, Italy.

Philippe Herreweghe is constantly seeking new musical challenges and has been very active in performing the great symphonic repertoire, from Beethoven to Stravinsky. Since 1997 he has been connected with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra (deFilharmonie) as both principal Conductor and guest Conductor . He is also in great demand as Conductor guest of orchestras such as the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra or the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich. In past seasons he has conducted the Staatkapelle Dresden, the Vienna Symphoniker, the Basel Kammerorchester and the Cleveland Orchestra on several occasions.

Over the years, Philippe Herreweghe has built an extensive discography of more than 135 recordings with all these different ensembles, on labels such as Harmonia Mundi France, Virgin Classics, and Pentatone. Highlights include Lassus' Lagrime di San Pietro, Bach's St. Matthew Passion, the complete symphonies of Beethoven and Schumann, Mahler's song cycle Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Bruckner's Symphony No. 5, Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms. In 2010 he co-founded his own label φ (PHI) with Outhere Music. Since then, more than 30 new recordings are available with music from William Byrd to Igor Stravinsky. Recent recordings include Beethoven's oratorio Christus am Ölberge (LPH 039), Robert Schumann's First and Third Symphonies (LPH040), and Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, a new volume of cantatas by J.S. Bach (LPH041).

Philippe Herreweghe has received numerous European awards for his constant artistic imagination and commitment. In 1990 the European music press named him "Musical Personality of the Year." In 1993 Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent were named "Cultural Ambassadors of Flanders." A year later he was awarded the Belgian order of Officier des Arts et Lettres, and in 1997 he received an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Leuven. In 2003 he received the French title of Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur. Finally, in 2010 the city of Leipzig awarded him the Bach-Medaille for his great service as a Bach interpreter. In 2021 Philippe Herreweghe was awarded the Ultima, a lifetime achievement award for general cultural merit granted by the Flemish government.