Born in Magdeburg, East Germany, Gudrun Engelhardt began playing violin at the age of four. She took lessons with Fritz Ehlers and Jörg Hofmann at the Liszt School of Music Weimar for five years before studying with Eberhard Feltz in Weimar and Berlin. Her first professional engagement was as associate concertmaster of the Symphony Orchestra in East Berlin (currently the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin). Parallel to that she began to become interested in historical performance practice, ultimately leaving the orchestra to dedicate herself to baroque music and chamber music.
 
Gudrun Engelhardt has been a member of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin since 1991, working regularly with conductors and soloists such as René Jacobs, Marcus Creed, Cecilia Bartoli, Andreas Scholl and Christine Schornsheim. In 1992 she moved to Cologne, where she has worked together with many of Germany’s leading baroque orchestras. She is an active participant in Germany’s baroque chamber music scene and has performed both within Germany and abroad in ensembles specializing in the classical, romantic, and modern repertoire.