Andreas Pflüger was born on 23 August 1941 in Basel, Switzerland, son of the renowned painter Carl Pflüger-Gotstein. He obtained his diploma at the Conservatory of Basel in 1965 whereupon he studied for one year at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. From 1966–1968 he was a collaborator of Igor Markevitch in Madrid and attended composition seminars (film music) with Prof. Luis de Pablo.
In the 1970s he participated several times at the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, Germany, where he worked with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Mauricio Kagel, Iannis Xenakis, Rolf Gehlhar, and Siegfried Palm, among others. He then undertook further studies with Rudolf Kelterborn.
In 1982 he received the Prix Suisse for his opera, La strega orsina che non muore mai (libretto by Grytzko Masconi). In 1990 and 1993 he served at the international music competitions in Geneva, Switzerland, and Markneukirchen, Germany, respectively.
In 1997 Pflüger embarked on a lecture circuit at various universities and cultural institutions in the US (UC Berkeley, Dallas, Charleston S.C., New York City, Washington D.C., and Chicago), lecturing on 200 years of music in Switzerland. In the following year he lectured on the same subject in Argentina (at universities in Buenos Aires, Rosario, Cordoba, Corrientes, Mendoza, and Bahia Blanca) and Paraguay (Asunción).
In 2007 Pflüger toured Japan. He lives in Basel, Switzerland. His œuvre comprises six operas, two ballets, orchestral works, chamber music, and approximately 120 compositions for film.