German conductor and violinist Werner Ehrhardt was raised in Cologne, where he was trained in historically informed performance practices by Franz Josef Maier. He continued his early music studies with Sigiswald Kuijken in Brussels, and he also studied conducting with Karl-Heinz Bloemeke in Detmold. Ehrhardt led the period instruments ensemble Concerto Köln from 1985 to 2005, and in 2004 he founded the orchestra L'Arte del Mondo. He has conducted the Staatsorchester Stuttgart, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss, and Capriccio Basel. He has performed with Andreas Scholl, Christiane Oelze, Edita Gruberová, Barbara Hendricks, Christine Schäfer, Xavier de Maistre, Olli Mustonen, Daniel Hope, Viktoria Mullova, and Daniel Müller-Schott. Ehrhardt's recordings have been released on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Archiv Produktion, and Capriccio Records, among other labels. ~ Blair Sanderson, Rovi