[citation needed] After his community service he studied historical musicology, philosophy and Modern history at the Free University of Berlin from 1980 to 1987.
In 1987, he was awarded a PhD in musicology by Rudolf Stephan with a thesis on the US-American composer Charles Ives.
From 1989 to 1991, he completed a career training to become a scientific librarian at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and at the Fachhochschule für Bibliotheks- und Dokumentationswesen Köln, which he completed with an assessor work on the historical textbook collection (opera libretti) of the music department of the Berlin State Library.
From 1991 to 2002, he was head of the music and performing arts department of the Zentralbibliothek der TU und UdK Berlin of the Universität der Künste Berlin;[2] in 1994/1995, he was also briefly head of the music department of the Sächsische Landesbibliothek - Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden.
[2] Since 2014, he has been chairman of the jury of the Schneider-Schott Music Prize[3] and a member of the Board of Trustees and the Scientific Committee of the Paul Sacher Foundation.