Sonja Epping

Sonja Epping was born in 1970 and studied musicology and German literature in Bonn, before completing courses in cultural and orchestral management in Cologne and Munich. She gained her first professional experience of concert management during her studies, including with the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn and Collegium musicum Bonn, as well as in press and public relations at the media company Deutsche Welle.

In 1995 she began working for West German Radio, where she was mainly responsible for the scheduling of the WDR Radio Orchestra and the WDR Symphony Orchestra as well as for the organization of the 1997 European tour of the latter. In 1996 she took over the management of Ensemble Köln, founded by Robert HP Platz, where she was also responsible for concert organization.

From 1998 to 2000 Sonja Epping worked at the artist management agency KünstlerSekretariat am Gasteig in Munich. She moved to Hesse Radio in Frankfurt, where she ran the orchestra office of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony until 2004. She then took over the management of the Young German Philharmonic until 2006 before being appointed artistic manager of the German Chamber Philharmonic Bremen, which she held for four years. From 2010 to 2017 she managed the concert office at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, where she was also responsible for artistic planning.
Since 2017 Sonja Epping has been the manager of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra.

She is a jury member of the 2020 Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award at the Salzburg Festival.