Specialist in collective bargaining, orchestra management, business models for orchestras, marketing and public relations, management & empowerment workshops for orchestras, Gerald Mertens was born in Lübeck, Germany.
He has been the Managing Director of the DOV (now: unisono – German Music and Orchestra Association) since January 2001. He is also member of the supervisory committee of the collective management organization GVL, Chairman of the German Orchestra Foundation and works as a solicitor in Berlin.
Since 2001, Gerald Mertens has been editor-in-chief of the magazine “das Orchester”, Schott Music, Mainz, and Chairman of the association “Netzwerk Junge Ohren” (Young Ears’ Network) since 2007.
Gerald Mertens studied law and church music in Kiel. He had internships, voluntary placements and his traineeships at the theatre in Kiel (previously: stages of the regional capital Kiel), at the Hamburg State Opera, the Eutiner Summer Festival, the German Stage Employers Association and the German Cities Council, among others.
With more than 30 years’ experience in the music industry, orchestra association, musicians’ union, publishing, university lectures and blogging on orchestra management, orchestra consulting, Gerald Mertens has hold lecturing positions for orchestra management, among others, in the specialist division cultural management and cultural tourism at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder).
