Kerstin Unseld is music editor at SWR2, where she works as editor and director for music features and word music programs. She has many years of experience in chamber music productions, produces CDs and radio recordings as well as concert recordings in the region. She is also responsible for the artistic direction of SWR2 concerts and concert series as well as for the selection and supervision of young musicians for the "SWR2 New Talent" support program. The joy in the creative handling of music, the interest in multimedia formats and especially in genuine listening formats determine her professional life.
Growing up in Karlsruhe, Kerstin Unseld studied musicology, literature, art history and Scandinavian studies in Karlsruhe and Freiburg. In 1995 she completed her studies with a master's thesis at the University of Karlsruhe. In 1997, she completed a postgraduate artistic study program at the "LernRadio" Institute of the Karlsruhe University of Music. In 2008 she received her doctorate at the Institute for Literary Studies at the University of Karlsruhe.
From 1997-2005, Kerstin Unseld worked as music editor at BayernKlassik and Bayern2Radio, where she directed and edited music features, developed new broadcasting formats for young audiences and new profiles for successful existing formats. Kerstin Unseld has also long written herself as a feature and radio play author for various ARD stations. She has also worked as a journalist in the print sector, including for daily newspapers such as Badische Neueste Nachrichten, NMZ, ZEIT Online, NZZ and Salzburger Nachrichten. In 2016 Kerstin Unseld published a children's book: "Man sieht auch mit den Ohren gut", series Hanser/dtv.
2009-2015 she taught at the Detmold University of Music at the Institute for Music Education and Music Management, from 2012 as substitute professor for music education and as head of the institute. From 2015-2018 she was a lecturer for music education and theater pedagogy at the University of Music and Performing Arts Mannheim, and from 2018-2020 she will work as a research assistant in the master's program in cultural education at the University of Education Karlsruhe.
Kerstin Unseld was a member of the advisory board of the Young Ears Network and of the international network "Forum Musikvermittlung an Hochschulen und Universitäten". From 2014 to 2022 she was a university councillor at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts.
Kerstin Unseld was a scholarship holder of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes. She has received several awards for her work, including the "Inventio" prize of the German Music Council.