Carl Petersson studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with José Ribera. Petersson was awarded the Tel-Hai International Piano Master Classes scholarship, and he also studied with Pnina Salzman, Viktor Derevianko, and Emanuel Krasovsky.

Petersson has collaborated with conductors JoAnn Falletta, Jiří Stárek, and Niklas Willén, with orchestras such as the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kraków Philharmonic, and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. He has participated in Music & Beyond, Canada, the International Chopin Festival in Antonin and the Beethoven Festival in Teplice.

In 2013 Petersson received his PhD from the Academy of Music in Kraków, where he assisted Mariola Cieniawa’s class. In 2008 he released an acclaimed recording of von Flotow piano concertos with the Pilsen Philharmonic, and recorded Godowsky’s Java Suite in 2011. During his Canadian tour, he made a live recording of Grieg’s Piano Concerto at CBC Radio, subsequently releasing an album in 2015. In 2016, Petersson released his second album for Grand Piano of world premiere recordings by Per Nørgård which won the 2016 Siemens Music Prize.

As a lecturer, Petersson has been invited to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, Tel Aviv University, the Hong Kong Acedemy for Performing Arts, University of Ottawa, and the New England Conservatory which has joint programmes with Harvard University. Carl Petersson currently collaborates with the Music School of Xiangnun University in Chenzhou, Hunan, China.