A native of Lower Austria received his first musical training at the Boys' Choir of the Episcopal seminar in Hollabrunn from Prof. Walter Lehner, before he began his vocal studies at the Vienna Conservatory with Margarita Heppe. Whilst still a student, and of just 20 years, he was engaged at the Landestheater Salzburg, where he completed his stage debut as Guglielmo in Mozart's "Così fan tutte". Within the framework of international singing competitions (Hugo Wolf Competition, Belvedere Competition, Schubert-Wolf Competition) he was awarded prizes that quickly established the young singer’s credentials as a concert soloist.

The henceforth freelance artist became one of the most respected performers of secular and sacred concert literature. After his first collaboration with Nikolaus Harnoncourt as part of the production of Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" at the Salzburg State Theater Anton Scharinger remains, to this day, one of the key performers in concerts, stage productions, CD and DVD productions of this conductor.

His international career as an opera singer gains its special value through performances at La Scala, the Vienna State Opera, the Zurich Opera, but also at the opera houses in Amsterdam, Hamburg, Paris, Rome, Chicago, Venice, San Francisco and Buenos Aires, as well as the Salzburg Festival Aix-en-Provence and Glyndebourne. As a result of this all the central roles in Mozatrs operas form the core of his stage repertoire: Papageno ("The Magic Flute"), Figaro ("The Marriage of Figaro"), Guglielmo ("Così fan tutte"), Leoprello and Massetto ("Don Giovanni" ) and Nardo ("La Finta Giardiniera").

In addition, he has developed more specialized roles in operas by Cimarosa (Geronimo in "Il matrimonio segreto"), Gluck (Thoas in "Iphigenie en Tauride"), Handel (Cadmus and Somnus in "Semele"), Weber (Scherasmin in "Oberon") , Kasper and Kuno ("Der Freischütz"), Donizetti (Belcore in "L'Elisir d'amore" Mamma Agata in "Viva la Mamma"), Flotow (Plumkett in "Martha"), Strauss (Spirit Messenger in "Die Frau ohne Schatten "), Stravinsky (Teiresias and messenger in" Oedipus Rex "), B. Smetana (Kezal and Kruschina in" The Bartered Bride ") and Henze (Gharib in" L'Upupa "), as well as Falke and Frank in the Johann Strauss operetta "Die Fledermaus", and many others. He has also sung many of these roles for CD and DVD in recordings for the labels Teldec, Sony BMG, Decca, Philips and Erato.

In concert, his repertoire reaches from Bach Passions to the modern age; his extensive concert discography  includes church music of Schubert, Mozart, Haydn, Handel and Bach. Especially in the concert sector Anton Scharinger presents copious years of intensive cooperation with an extensive number of prominent conductors: Sergiu Celibidache, Riccardo Chailly, William Christie, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Antal Dorati, Dennis Russell Davies, John Eliot Gardiner, Michael Gielen, Bernard Haitink , Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Armin Jordan, Marc Minkowski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Georges Pretre, Nello Santi, Vaclav Neumann, Charles Mackerras, Raphael Frühbeck de Burgos, Sir Georg Solti, Franz Welser-Möst and more.

Since the beginning of his career A. Scharinger is also dedicated to Lieder singing with great passion. Numerous recitals (Hohenems, Vienna, Cologne, Florence, Amsterdam, Graz, Madrid, Wiesbaden, Hamburg, Zurich, Bonn ....), With different programs, especially with songs of romance, late Romantic and 20th century with David Lutz, Helmut Deutsch Leonhard Hokanson, Barbara Moser, Roman Ortner, Jörg Demus, ... .Hermann Prey and Anneliese Rothenberger

Anton Scharinger was awarded for his Mozart Interpretation (1995) and for his Mozart recordings (2002) by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education and Art.

Since 2008, Anton Scharinger is a Professor for the Department of Vocal Studies and Music Theatre at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. From 2016 til 2017 he was the Deputy Head of the Department.