Prof. Burkhard Kehring

The pianist Burkhard Kehring devoted a great deal of attention to the 'art song' genre early on. He has received accompanist prizes at international song competitions in London (Walther Gruner Competition in 1993) and in Munich (Hans Pfitzner Competition in 1994), marking the beginning of his concert activity as a song accompanist, which led him to the most important concert halls in Europe (including Wigmore Hall London, the Berliner Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Wien, Concertgebouw Amsterdam) in the USA, to Asia and South America as well as to numerous  music festivals (including Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Musikfestspiele Bergen, Schubert Serenades New York, Ravinia Festival Chicago, Wien Modern).

Burkhard Kehring was the official accompanist at masterclasses with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Reri Grist, Marylin Horne, Ernst Haefliger, and Hermann Prey. His concert activities brought him together with singing partners such as Christiane Iven, Randi Stene, Michaela Kaune, Christiane Oelze, Claudia Barainsky, Christiane Karg, Robert Holl, Kwangchoul Youn, Roman Trekel, Christian Elsner, Dietrich Henschel, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Jan Kobow, Andreas Schmidt, Florian Bösch, Lothar Odinius, and Daniel Johannsen as well as with narrators such as Gert Westphal and Udo Samel. Together with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau he formed Melodramenabende from 1995-2005. In addition, Burkhard Kehring produced his own recital series: For his first recital cycle in the Laeiszhalle Hamburg in 1996 he brought almost the entire Hugo Wolf song collection to the performance. It was followed in 1997 by the 'Schubertiade modern' - a juxtaposition of the songs of Schubert and the Schönberg circle - and the recital series 'Schubert plus' in Frankfurt/Main. As part of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in 2003, Burkhard Kehring created another Hugo Wolf concert series for the 100th anniversary of the death of the composer. In 2004 he presented another Schubert series at the Berliner Staatsoper Unter den Linden. In 2006 he accepted an invitation to a Robert Schumann cycle at the Beethovenfest Bonn, which also included the inauguration of his global song project 'Divan of Song' in 2014.

An important issue for the pianist is also contemporary song. He has premiered numerous compositions by Lars-Henrik Nystén, Johanna Doderer, Christoph Coburger, Otfried Büsing, Fabián Panisello, Param Vir, Hannah Hanbiel Choi, and Dai Fujikura. Burkhard Kehring's CD recordings range from Lieder by Schubert, Schumann, and Mahler to Ullmann, Fortner, and Ligeti. A melodrama double album with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau appeared by Deutschen Grammophon as his final studio recording. The recording with the soprano Christiane Karg 'Verwandlung - Lieder eines Jahres' was awarded with the ECHO-Klassik in 2010.

In 2002 he was appointed to a song professorship at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg and since 2008 he has led the new master's program for song interpretation, which he started. He was invited to give masterclasses in Germany, Spain, Canada, Israel, Iran, South Korea, China, and India and belongs to the founding members of the "German Song Academy."