A composer, electronic artist, and professor of the musical arts, Knittel has created orchestral, choral and chamber works, operatic and ballet music, sound installations, numerous computer pieces (which he has both composed and performed) as well as "live electronics". The artist’s discography comprises more than sixty titles. Knittel studied sound engineering and composition with Tadeusz Baird, Andrzej Dobrowolski, and Włodzimierz Kotoński at Warsaw’s Chopin State Higher School (now University) of Music. In 1974 and 1976 he took part in the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music.