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The German violinist and conductor, Werner Ehrhardt [Erhardt], studied period performance practice under Professor Franz-Josef Maier (Cologne), Sigiswald Kuijken (Brussels), as well as conducting under Professor Bloemeke in Detmold. His perpetual inquisitiveness and his keen interest for the various approaches to music led him to further intensive studies under the teacher Kato Havas in Oxford and Professor Renate Peter in Cologne.
Werner Ehrhardt is a constant presence on the international stage as a conductor. From 1985 to 2005, he directed the world-renowned chamber orchestra Concerto Köln, developing and shaping distinct style in rendering period performance practices. In 2004, he founded the Orchestra L'arte del mondo, while also working with traditional orchestras as a freelance conductor. Ever since then, he has guested with several international opera, symphony, and chamber orchestras such as the Staatsopernorchester Stuttgart, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Berner Sinfonieorchester, Hamburger Symphoniker, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Deutsche-Kammerakademie Neuss, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, and Capriccio Basel.
Werner Ehrhardt is has worked with soloists like Edita Gruberová, Magdalena Kožená, Barbara Hendricks, Christine Schäfer, Eva Mei, Andreas Scholl, Laura Aikin, Rainer Trost, Raffaella Milanesi, Olli Mustonen, Christiane Oelze, Xavier de Maistre, Daniel Hope, Viktoria Mullova, Daniel Müller-Schott, the RIAS-Kammerchor, and the Tölzer Knabenchor. Through his openness for innovations, his artistic curiosity, his infectious enthusiasm and his musical cosmopolitanism in working with orchestras, Werner Ehrhardt captivates his musicians, the audience, and the press. As a conductor, he represents a distinct, unmistakably historically schooled interpretation of orchestral and vocal works, with his interests reaching beyond the horizons of Western European music. In December 2013, he gave a guest performance with the Zürcher Kammerorchester of George Frideric Handel's Messiah.
Accordingly, under his direction, more than 50 CD's have been recorded in the fields of opera, oratorio and concertante-symphonic music, many of which have been honoured with numerous international awards. Among the recordings, one can find re-discoveries of works by forgotten composers (e. g. Joseph Martin Kraus, Pasquale Anfossi, Josef Mysliveček, and Franz Xaver Sterkel), of which the audiences were made aware again with great enthusiasm. Such as the world's first CD release of Msylivecek's Medonte on the label Deutsche Harmonia Mundi. |
