In 1968, he graduated from the piano department of the Tartu Music High School and in 1973 from the Tallinn State Conservatoire as a composition student of Jaan Rääts and Eino Tamberg. In 1975–1976 Kangro worked as the music director of the Estonian Television. He was engaged as the adviser at the Estonian Composers’ Union in 1977–1985 and as the director of the Estonian Music Foundation in 1993–2000. In 2000–2001 Kangro was the vice-chairman of the Estonian Composers’ Union; in 2001 he was elected the chairman. Until his death, Kangro also was one of the artistic directors of the Estonian Music Days festival, founded in 1979. From 1989–2001, he served as an Estonian Academy of Music composition faculty member (assistant professor since 1995) where his best-known students were Tõnu Kõrvits, Tõnis Kaumann, Timo Steiner and Ülo Krigul.

Raimo Kangro's personal style is founded on the neoclassical basis – it stayed relatively constant throughout his whole creative period. The main characteristic of his idiom is an active, changeable, often syncopated rhythm. Melody is angular and development is based on variation or fluid and improvisation-like. Active rhythmic pulse is a unifier for stylistic borrowings from pop, rock, ancient European styles and Estonian folk music. Polyrhythmics and heterophonic orchestral textures in bright timbre colours introduce tension into the music. Instrumental works and operas are central in Kangro's oeuvre.