Werner Ehrhardt is a German conductor and violinist known for his expertise in historically informed performance. He is also a prolific recording artist and can be found on over 70 recordings with Concerto Köln, l'arte del mondo, and several other ensembles. Ehrhardt was born in Cologne in 1957, and he began studying historically informed performance in the late '70s. He was a student of Franz Josef Maier, Sigiswald Kuijken, and he also studied conducting with Karl-Heinz Bloemeke. Later, he sought further instruction under Kato Havas and Renate Peter. Ehrhardt was a founding member of the chamber orchestra Concerto Köln, and he served as its music director from 1985 to 2005. Under his leadership, the group became very well-known for its distinct style of performance practice, and for reintroducing forgotten and neglected works from Baroque- and Classical-era composers such as Francesco Durante, Franz Xaver Sterkel, and Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco. Near the end of his tenure with Concerto Köln, Ehrhardt formed the orchestra l'arte del mondo, and he also began accepting appointments as a guest conductor with several ensembles in Europe including the Berner Symphonieorchester, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, and the Stuttgart State Opera Orchestra. Additionally, Ehrhardt has collaborated with the Pera Ensemble, the Al Ol Ensemble, and soloists such as Barbara Hendricks, Olli Mustonen, and Edita Gruberová. In the late 2000s, he released the albums Etienne-Nicolas Méhul: L'Irato ou L'Emporté, Giovanni Paisiello: Passio di San Giovanni, and Harem: Les Fetes du Seraïlles. His 2019 album Anton Zimmermann: Sinfonien was nominated for an OPUS KLASSIK award for World Premiere Recording of the Year. Ehrhardt's discography continues to grow in the 2020s, with the release of Vivaldi, Paganini, Tartini, Schmittbaur: Symphonies, and Giuseppe Gazzaniga: L'isola d'Alcina. ~ RJ Lambert, Rovi