Rainer Seegers comes from a family of musicians. His grandfather, for many years principal trumpet of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, gave his the necessary musical arsenal for his later career as an orchestral player. After settling with his family in Hanover, Rainer Seegers entered the city’s Musikhochschule to begin his training as a percussionist and timpanist with Albert Schober, and from 1973 to 1977 he studied school music with percussion as his chief subject.

Already active as a substitute in the orchestra of the Hanover Staatsoper from the age of 13, he took up his first permanent engagement as principal timpanist at the Braunschweig Staatstheater. In 1979 he moved to the same position with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, and from 1977 to 1982 he was also a member of the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra. In 1984 Seegers joined the Berliner Philharmoniker – first as a regular deputy, then, from 1986, in a permanent position as successor to the orchestra’s principal timpanist Werner Thärichen.

His orchestral activities – including chamber music – are complemented by teaching engagements and master classes. Until 1983 on the staff of the Hanover Musikhochschule, he now teaches in the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Orchestra Academy and as a visiting professor at Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Hochschule der Musik. His free time is devoted to entomology. He has collected 100,000 day-flying and night-flying butterflies and written about a number of them. His reference to their acute endangerment has led to two areas in Germany being placed under wildlife protection.

Rainer Seegers potječe iz obitelji glazbenika. Njegov djed, mnogo godina prvi trubač leipciškog Gewandhaus orkestra, dao mu je potrebne glazbene osnove za kasniju karijeru orkestralnog umjetnika. Nakon što se s obitelji nastanio u Hannoveru, Rainer Seegers upisao je gradsku Glazbenu akademiju i otpočeo školovanje za udaraljkaša i timpanista s Albertom Schoberom i od 1973. do 1977. studirao pedagoški smjer s udaraljkama kao glavnim predmetom.

Već aktivan kao zamjena u orkestru hanoverske Gradske opere u od 13. godine, svoj prvi aktivni angažman preuzeo je u Gradskom kazalištu Braunschweig kao prvi timpanist. 1979. preselio se na istovjetno radno mjesto u Radijski simfonijski orkestar Kölna, a od 1977. do 1982. također je bio i član Festivalskog orkestra grada Bayereuth. 1984. Seegers se priključio berlinskoj filharmoniji - prvo kao regularna zamjena, zatim, od 1986., na stalnom mjestu kao nasljednik prvog timpanista orkestra, Wernera Thärichena.

Njegove aktivnosti u orkestru - uključujući komornu glazbu - su dopunjene nastavničkim angažmanom i majstorskim tečajevima. Do 1983. bio je nastavnik hanoverske Glazbene akademije, sada predaje na Akademiji berlinskog filharmonijskog orkestra i gostujući je profesor na berlinskoj Hans Eisler Glazbenoj akademiji. Svoje slobodno vrijeme posvećuje entomologiji. Sakupio je 100.000 dnevnih i noćnih leptira i pisao o mnogima od njih. Njegovo pozivanje na njihovu akutnu ugroženost dovelo je do toga da su dva područja u Njemačkoj stavljena pod posebnu državnu zaštitu.