Preisner studied history and philosophy in Krakow. Never having received formal music lessons, he taught himself about music by listening and transcribing parts from records.

Preisner is best known for his work on Kieslowski's movies. Some of these movies make reference to and contain music by a fictitious eighteenth-century Dutch composer, Van den Budenmayer. In actuality, all music credited to Budenmayer within the context of the films is composed by Preisner. Similarly, in Kieslowski's Three Colors: Blue the "Song For The Unification of Europe", written by Preisner, is supposed to be composed by one of the characters in the film.

After working with fellow Pole Agnieszka Holland on Kieslowski's Three Colors: Blue, Preisner was hired by producer Francis Ford Coppola to write the score for The Secret Garden, directed by Holland.

Although Preisner is most closely associated with Kieslowski, he has written for other directors, winning a Cesar in 1996 for his work on Jean Becker's Elisa. He has won a number of other awards, including another Cesar in 1994 for Three Colors: Red, and the Silver Bear from the 1997 Berlin Film Festival 1997 for The Island on Bird Street.

In 1998, Requiem for My Friend, Preisner's first large scale work not written for film, premiered. It was originally intended as a narrative work to be written by Krzysztof Piesiewicz and directed by Kieslowski, but after Kieslowski's death, it instead became a sort of memorial to him.

He composed the theme music for the People's Century, a monumental twenty-six part documentary made jointly in 1994 by the BBC television network in Great Britain and the PBS television network in the United States.

He provided orchestration for David Gilmour's 2006' On An Island

Preisner's style is basically Romantic, with Jean Sibelius being an acknowledged influence.

His official website : http://www.preisner.com/