From 2004 to 2009 Demian Kappenstein studied jazz drums, percussion jazz/rock/pop, free improvisation and contemporary music at the Dresden University of Music with Prof. Günter Baby Sommer and Michael Griener. From 2009-2011 he was a master student of the composer and drummer Eric Schaefer from Berlin (graduation: master class examination) and holder of the state scholarship of the Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen. Kappenstein worked with musicians such as Rolf Kühn, Giora Feidman, Markus Stockhausen, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Arve Henriksen, Louis Sclavis and Robyn Schulkowsky. In the jazz series 'Feature Ring' at the European Center of Arts HELLERAU he has been bringing impressive national and international artists to Dresden since 2007, which he accompanies with his trio. In 2012 he won the Bremen Jazz Prize with the band Masaa, in 2015 the RUTH World Music Prize (category: Promotion Prize), in 2017 the German Record Critics' Prize and in 2020 the International Anchor Award with his duo ÄTNA.

In his concerts for solo percussion he works on the connection of electronic and acoustic music and its visual perception. His solo debut WEIT was released in 2016 as a special edition on CD with a 90-page illustrated book and as white vinyl on Jazzsick Records in Cologne. In December 2015 Kappenstein presented the "invisible drums-visible drums" in a duo with Vincent von Schlippenbach in the German Bundestag.

For the guts company he developed sounds for the following pieces: "Mary wieder-holen"(2017), " Architektur und Tanz"(2018), "Am Königsweg nach Elfriede Jelinek/ MACHT#1"(2020) and "MACHT#2 - the skin"(2020/21)