Sheet music by Elke Michel-Blagrave

Elke Michel-Blagrave was born in Germersheim am Rhein. She received her first organ lessons from cathedral organist Leo Krämer and choral conducting lessons from Bernhard Weck in Speyer. At the age of 17 she passed the C-examination for organists and choirmasters. She graduated from the Goethegymnasium in Germersheim in 1979.

After eight semesters of studying church music at the Frankfurt Musikhochschule, she passed her A-examination in 1983. Teachers were Hans-Joachim Bartsch in organ and Helmut Rilling as well as Wolfgang Schäfer in choir and orchestra conducting. She studied piano with the Russian pianist Irina Edelstein.

In 1983 she came to Salzburg and studied performance practice with Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Mozarteum University, where she graduated with distinction in 1988 with the organist Heribert Metzger. She studied piano with Laszlo Pogany, Hiroko Miki and Stan Ford, among others. She completed her studies in instrumental pedagogy with the Magister Artium and wrote her scientific work on Johann Nepomuk David and the Wels Bach Choir.

She completed her studies in musicology and art history at the Paris Lodron University in Salzburg with a master’s degree in philosophy. She wrote her scientific work about the Berchtesgaden singer and composer Sebastian Hasenknopf and his Cantiones Sacrae, which were printed in Munich in 1588.

At the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz she expanded her repertoire of keyboard music of the 16th and 17th centuries with Brett Leighton.

In 2014 she earned her doctorate at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg with her musicological dissertation "Rund um das Piano-Forte in Salzburg. Sources, repertoire, opportunities to make music 1804 - 1842. Studies in music making in the bourgeoisie and aristocratic circles", Doctor of Philosopy (PhD).