Nikolaus von Tippelskirch was born in 1964 in Hanover and received his first music lessons at the age of 9 from the solo trumpeter of the Hanover State Opera. After graduating from high school, he studied trumpet at the Berlin University of the Arts with the principal trumpeters of the Berlin Philharmonic Fritz Wesenigk and Konradin Groth.
His first engagement took him to the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra for 2 years, before he became deputy principal trumpet of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra in 1995.
In 2007 Nikolaus von Tippelskirch was engaged as alternate trumpet player of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra.
Since 2011 he has held a teaching position for trumpet at the Hochschule für Musik "Carl Maria von
Weber" and the Sächsisches Landesgymnasium Dresden respectively.