He has been working since the mid-1980s as a composer, arranger and producer in the field of contemporary music and functional music. His musical language is often infused with elements of other genres and cultures. His compositions are performed in most European countries, in former Soviet Union countries, in the USA and Canada, in Central and South America and in the Far East. In addition, there are radio recordings and CD productions in Germany and abroad. Schultheiss was active for many years as an interpreter of his own works, especially with various cabaret programs. In addition to his artistic work, he works as a professor of music theory at the Academy of Music of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster.
His research interests are:
    • the context between composition and interpretation
    • Virtual musical instruments (software instruments) in practice
    • Dynamic scores
Ulrich Schultheiss received instrumental lessons since the age of four (piano, later violoncello and cello). At the age of 11 he came to the pianist Erich Appel as a young student at the conservatory in Nuremberg. Until graduating from high school, he was a laureate of the Jugend Musiziert competition in various disciplines, including national prize winners in the piano four-handed / 2 pianos division.
After a brief study visit at the Medical Faculty of the Università di Ferrara (Italy), he studied at the University of Music in Würzburg. Among his teachers were u. a. the pianist Julian von Károlyi, the music theorist Zsolt Gárdonyi and the composer Bertold Hummel, in which Schultheiss passed the master class diploma.
Ulrich Schultheiss was a lecturer at various German educational institutions, including the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich, at the University of the Arts in Berlin and at the University of Music Würzburg, where he from 2000 to 2002, together with Christoph Wünsch the studio for new music headed. In 2002 he was appointed Professor of Music Theory at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold in Münster.