From 1978 Windfuhr studied orchestral conducting in Cologne, Vienna and Florence[1] and attended master classes with Franco Ferrara, Carlo Maria Giulini, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Leonard Bernstein and Günter Ludwig.
From 1998 to 2003, Windfuhr worked alongside Director-General Kirsten Harms as music director of the stages of the State Capital Kiel.
His concert career has taken him from the beginning of his career through Europe (Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Hungary) and to the USA; as an opera conductor he has appeared on renowned German stages, including the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf-Duisburg, at the Opera Bonn, at the Mannheim National Theatre and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
At the Kiel Opera Windfuhr recorded for the label Classic Production Osnabrück among others, Flammen, Das Spielwerk und die Prinzessin and Christophorus oder Die Vision einer Oper by Franz Schreker as well as Donna Diana by Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek.
From 2007 to 2013 Windfuhr was Professor of Conducting at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig, where his students included Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.