Folkert Uhde

Bio

Folkert Uhde has developed the term concert design for his artistic work and established it as a theory in the discourse on new concert formats for classical music. He is the artistic director of the Köthen Bach Festival and, together with Hans-Joachim Gögl, the inventor and artistic director of the Montforter Zwischentöne in Feldkirch/Vorarlberg. The HUGO student competition for new concert dramaturgies was also created in the context of the Montforter Zwischentöne. His own artistic projects between concert design, direction and video have an international presence.

In addition to artistic and conceptual work, the topic of regional development through culture has become increasingly important in recent years.

Folkert Uhde teaches at various colleges and universities and advises institutions on artistic and strategic issues for the future. He is also one of the mentors in the Concert21 programme of the Alfred Töpfer Foundation in Hamburg. In 2022, the German Rectors’ Conference appointed him Artistic Advisor for the D-bü competition for innovative concert formats.

As Artistic Director of the international research project Experimental Concert Research, he and an interdisciplinary team investigate the concert experience from the perspective of the audience.

In 2009, he was voted “Cultural Manager of the Year” for his innovative approach in connection with the Berlin Radialsystem. Together with Jochen Sandig, he founded the Radialsystem and remains a partner to this day. This is also where the founding impulse for the Coalition of the Independent Scene Berlin was created, which has since been imitated nationwide. The music show “Dasch-Salon” for 3SAT and the concert film “4 Elemente” for ARTE, both developed and produced by Folkert Uhde, were also recorded at the Radialsystem.

From 1997 to 2008, Folkert Uhde ran the concert agency Uhde & Harckensee Musikmanagement, before which he worked as a project manager, baroque violinist and technician, among other things.
During this time, he was responsible for the international management of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. From 2002 to 2008, he conceptualised the Biennale Zeitfenster – Festival for Early Music for the Konzerthaus Berlin. From 2013 to 2018, he directed the Musikfest ION, which included two major television productions with Bayerischer Rundfunk.

Folkert Uhde is a volunteer for regional development in Köthen and the region in the Trafo – Models for Culture in Transition project of the German Federal Cultural Foundation. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the Saxony-Anhalt Art Foundation and the Radial Foundation.