Eberhard Friedrich was born in Darmstadt. After studying conducting with Prof. Helmuth Rilling in Frankfurt am Main, his first engagement as choral director followed in 1986, first at the Theater der Stadt Koblenz and then in 1991 at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden. As early as 1993, he began working as an assistant at the Bayreuth Festival and was appointed choir director of the Bayreuth Festival Choir in 2000. The Bayreuth Festival Choir, whose members come from many different ensembles, comes together only in the summer during the Festival. It is assembled each year by Eberhard Friedrich, who rehearses and conducts it during the summer season. Under his direction, the choir was awarded the International Opera Award as best choir of the year in 2014.
Between 1998 and 2013, Eberhard Friedrich was choral director of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. During this time, in addition to opera rehearsals with the Staatsoper Chorus, he also supervised concerts and numerous CD and DVD recordings of this ensemble. He gained special attention with the recording of Tannhäuser under Daniel Barenboim, for which the State Opera Chorus conducted by Eberhard Friedrich was awarded a Grammy along with all other participants. Under Eberhard Friedrich's direction, the Staatsoper Chorus has received various awards and invitations, including being named Chorus of the Year in 2004 for its performance in Moses und Aron (also under Daniel Barenboim), receiving the European Culture Prize, and being invited to participate in a CD production of Carmen with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle in 2012.
In addition to his operatic activities, Eberhard Friedrich has worked with many renowned choirs in concert and opera rehearsals. He was a guest of the International Bach Academy Stuttgart, supervised rehearsals with the Philharmonic Choir Prague, the Bavarian Radio Choir, the Rias Chamber Choir and since 2013 also with the choir of the NDR. He was responsible for the rehearsal of the choirs of the Westminster Choir College in Princeton on the occasion of the cyclical performance of all Mahler symphonies under Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez in New York in 2009 and supervised concert opera performances under Jaap van Sweden with the Choir of the Netherlands Radio. Together with the Rundfunkchor Berlin, with which he was associated as a guest for many years, he worked on the majority of the choral rehearsals for the RSB's Wagner cycle under Marek Janowski, which was also released on CD. In 2012 he was invited to Amsterdam for a staged opera production, where he rehearsed the new production of Rossini's late work Guillaume Tell with the Netherlands Opera Chorus.
After 15 years at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Eberhard Friedrich moved in 2013 to the Hamburg State Opera as choral director, where he remains today. Already in his first season there he could celebrate together with the whole house the International Opera Award, which Simone Young and the ensemble, for the three best Verdi productions in the Verdi year 2013 was awarded.