ELKE BURKERT 

worked as a school musician before completing her vocal training with the Artistic
State Diploma as a concert singer and as Dipl.-Mus. at the University of Music Munich.

In addition to her teaching position at the Vocational School of Music in Kronach, she completed a conductor training program with a degree and was the artistic director and conductor of the Bayreuth Orchestra Association e.V. for 10 years.

As a singer she has toured worldwide and collaborated with renowned orchestras such as Het Gelders Orkest Amsterdam, the Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Consortium Alte Universität Wien, the Bamberg, Nuremberg, and Hof Symphony Orchestras, the Montreal University Orchestra, and the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, among others, under the direction of Sir Mark Elder, James Levine, Viktor Lukas, Woldemar Nelsson, Helmuth Rilling, Wolfgang Riedelbauch, Peter Schneider, Martin Sieghart, Horst Stein, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Georg Solti, Edo de Waart, and others.

Elke Burkert was also a member of the Bayreuth Festival for 9 years (here working under the direction of Wolfgang Wagner, Götz Friedrich, Werner Herzog, and others) while holding a teaching position in singing at the University of Bayreuth. Since 2008, the founder and director of Collegia Musica Chiemgau e.V. has been living in Chiemgau.

  The motivation for her extensive activities, especially organizing and designing benefit concerts, is purely private and based on the concept of "gratitude."

In July 2015, she was awarded the Bavarian Volunteer Card by the district of Traunstein. In November 2017, Elke Burkert conducted the Bundesärzte-philharmonie with great success and standing ovations in the Laeiszhalle of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg with an extraordinary program, including a premiere of a concert for marimba by Satoshi Yagisawa in an arrangement for symphony orchestra by herself.

At the beginning of 2024, the conductor received the Diamond Prize (1st Prize) in the Concert Conducting category of the Max Bruch International Music Competition, as well as the Diamond Prize in the Conducting category of the World Exceptional Musicians.

Elke Burkert will soon be conducting, among other things, the New Year's Eve Concert 2024 of the Regensburg Chamber Orchestra under the motto "Musical Highlights to End the Year" in the historic Runtingersaal of the city of Regensburg with an extraordinary program.