Born in Arnsberg (Germany) he first studied art history in Braunschweig and Munich, where he received his masters degree. In his spare time he took privat singing lessons.

For his musical studies he then moved to Vienna, where he still lives.

While he was still a student, numerous performances with the viennese vocal ensemble La Cappella took him to Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

In 1987 he participated at a masterclass with Maestro Peter Schreier.

The same year von Plettenberg debuted at Theatre of Coburg (Germany), as Ernesto (Don Pasquale) and Ottavio (Don Giovanni), as well as in other roles.

In 1993 he won the first price at the International Mozart Singing Competition of the Budapest State Opera.

In 1991 he appeared as Leslie Caron's partner in the musical Grand Hotel at the Theater des Westens in Berlin, where he subsequently scored further great success, performing with Helen Schneider and Angelika Milster in the musicals Anything Goes and Ufa-Revue.

This was followed by appearances at the state operas of Budapest and Prague, the Neue Oper in Vienna, the city theatres of Klagenfurt, St. Pölten and Baden in Austria, Teatro Lirico d'Europa, Dessau, Flensburg, Mecklenburg, Salzburg and festivals such as Vienna's Klangbogen, the Kurt Weill Festival of Vienna's Jeunesse Musicale and the "Summer Operetta" at Schönbrunn Palace.

In May 2003 he debuted in the role of Frederic in the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance at Vienna's Volksoper.

In July 2003 he appeared as Don Carlos at an open-air gala concert organized by the Italian Embassy at Klosterneuburg Abbey (Austria).

Numerous church (St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna) and concert performances of a broad repertoire ranging from Bach, Handel, Haydn (Joseph and Michael), Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Rossini, Verdi and Bruckner to Weill and Krenek as well as Eugene Hartzell, who composed for him the cycle An das Licht on poems by Wolfgang Klähn, have taken him to Japan (Tokyo, Kiushu), the Netherlands, Vienna's Konzerthaus and Musikverein, festivals such as the Lower Austrian Cultural Scene in St. Pölten, the Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt and Kromsdorf Castle in Weimar, where he gave the première performance of An das Licht .

During a Concert Tour in march Ferdinand von Plettenberg appeared in famos Concert Halls like Alte Oper Frankfurt, Die Glocke Bremen, Musikhalle Hamburg, Gewandhaus Leipzig and Kulturpalast Dresden.

From January to May 2004 Ferdinand von Plettenberg appeared at Salzburg Theatreas Count Zedlau in Wiener Blut (Johann Strauss).

In September 2004 he will go on Tour through Japan with the role of Ferrando in Cosi Fan Tutte.

In January 2005 another Concert Tour through Germany took Ferdinand von Plettenberg to Leipzig (Gewandhaus), Stuttgart (Liederhalle), Halle (Georg Friedrich Händel Halle), Dresden (Kulturpalast),as well as Aachen, Saarbrücken, Trier, Krefeld, etc.

On March 20th 2005 von Plettenberg appeared at the "De Singel" in Antwerp as a Guest of the "International Robert Stolz Society Belgium".

On April 10th of the same year he gave a much celebrated "Lieder"- Recital in his german home town Menden, where he sang "Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen" by Krenek and "Dichterliebe" by Schumann.