Burkhard Kehring received his musical education in Hamburg and Vienna and had an early interest in the specialised field of vocal accompanying, which he studied with Gernot Kahl and Ralf Gothoni. Accompanist’s prizes in international art song competitions in London (Walther Gruner Competition 1993) and Munich (Hans Pfitzner Competition 1994) marked the beginning of a performing career which has already taken him to most European countries, the United States, Asia and South America and to numerous major festivals such as the Schubertiade in Feldkirch and Klangbogen in Vienna, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Berlin Festspiele, the Ravinia Festival in the United States, Wratislavia Cantans in Poland and the Bergen Festival in Norway.
Burkhard Kehring has initiated and accompanied his own Lieder recital series, including a Hugo Wolf Cycle in Hamburg in 1996, a complete performance of Wolf’s songs, the Schubertiade Modern in 1997, with Schubert’s songs contrasted with those of Schoenberg, Berg, Webern and Eisler, and the concert series Schubert Plus in Frankfurt-am-Main. Recent recordings include a Scandinavian art song recital, canzoni by Rossini and songs by Viktor Ullmann.
He was the official accompanist at master-classes with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Reri Grist, Marilyn Horne, Hermann Prey and Ernst Haeflinger, and has worked with distinguished singers, including Julia Varady, Randi Stene, Christiane Iven, Michaela Kaune, Simone Nold, Robert Holl, Christian Elsner, Andreas Schmidt, Hanno Muller-Brachmann and Dietrich Henschel. Since 1996 he has collaborated with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, performing musical readings and melodrama recitals. He teaches artsong for singers and pianists at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, and has given master-classes in Germany and Israel.
