Gerald Eckert, born in Nuremberg in 1960, studied violoncello, composition and conducting at the Conservatoire in Nuremberg, mathematics at the University of Erlangen, composition with Nicolaus A. Huber and electronic composition with Dirk Reith at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. He participated in additional composition courses with Brian Ferneyhough and Jonathan Harvey.
In 1996/97, he spent a work and research year in the CCRMA at Stanford University in the USA. In 1998, he was a lecturer at the International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt and at the Akiyoshidai-Festival in Japan. In 2000/2001, he had a lectureship for composition and architecture at the TU Darmstadt.
From 2012 to 2014, Gerald Eckert was Professor for Composition at the Chung-Ang University in Seoul/ Anseong South Korea.
Gerald Eckert has received numerous prizes and awards including the C.Gulbenkian Prize, Portugal 1993; the Kranichstein Prize, Darmstadt 1996; 1st prize in Bourges 2003, 1st prize at the Stuttgart Composition Competition 2005 and in addition to scholarships e.g. Venice 2006 or the Villa Aurora/ Los Angeles 2010.
His works have been performed at festivals such as the Ars Musica in Brussels, Eclat Festival Stuttgart, Transit-Festival Leuven, Ultraschall Berlin, Musica Strasbourg, International Summer Courses Darmstadt, Futura Festival Crest/ France, Inventionen Berlin, Nœcleo Mœsica Nueva de Montevideo, Dresdner Tage fŸr zeitgenšssische Musik, Gaudeamus International Music week, Discoveries Aberdeen, Tage fŸr Neue Musik ZŸrich, Festival Mœsica Nova Sao Paulo, "Melos-Ethos" Festival Bratislava, Sonorities Belfast/ Northern Ireland, "Bernaola" Festival/ Spain, "Slowind" Festival/ Slovenia, Musica Scienza Rome, voix nouvelles Royaumont/ France, among others.
Gerald Eckert works with orchestras, ensembles and musicians including the NDR-Philharmonie, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Aventure, Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble SurPlus, Formalist Quartet/ Los Angeles, Divertimento Ensemble (Italy), Musikfabrik NRW to mention only a few.
Since 1989, he has also worked on his own paintings and has had a series of exhibitions and installations since 1994. Relevant catalogues were published in 1995, 2006 and 2014.
In 2013 a monograph about Gerald Eckert by Gisela Nauck has been published at the Wolke Verlag. CD's has been published at different major labels, e.g. col legno, NEOS and mode records.