Michael Pelzel was born 1978 in Rapperswil, Switzerland. Upon completion of his the High-School Diploma in the City of Wattwil, Michael Pelzel began his professional training at the Music Universities of Lucerne, Basel, Stuttgart, Berlin and Karlsruhe.

There, he studied piano with Ivan Klánsky, amongst others, organ with Jakob Wittwer, Martin Sander, Ludger Lohmann and Guy Bovet and Composition with Dieter Ammann, Detlev Müller-Siemens, Georg-Friedrich Haas, Hanspeter Kyburz and Wolfgang Rihm. Additionally he studied Music Theory with Roland Moser and Balz Trümpy.