Herbert Böck was already a soprano soloist in the Vienna Sängerknaben, amongst others, in the Bach Cantatas under Nikolaus Harnoncourt. From 1984 to 1989 he was a solo oboist in the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, then Artistic Director of the Vienna Singakademie with conducting duties at the Vienna Konzerthaus until 1998. Since 1989, he has also been the Artistic Director of the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra, the nationwide Austrian youth orchestra. He has been the professor of Choral and Ensemble Conducting at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg since 1995.

He won numerous competitions with the chamber choir "Concentus Vocalis", which he founded, including the first prize and overall win in the European Broadcasting Union EBU competition "Let the peoples sing" in Helsinki in 1987.