Carsten Durer was born in Germany in 1963. He studied the piano with the Hungarian, Stefan Jazs-Freit, in D?sseldorf but decided to study musicology in Cologne with Prof. Klaus Wolfgang Niemöller and Hans Schmidt. He got his Masters Degree in 1990, also in German and Librarianship.
From 1989 to 1995 he was chief editor of the “Instrumentenbau-Zeitschrift,” the oldest German magazine for instruments in Germany (founded in 1880). From 1990 to 1991 he founded the magazine “Pianoforte” in the Musik Media Verlag Cologne and was its chief editor.

Since 1985 he has also been a freelance journalist for different newspapers and magazines throughout Germany. He has published various articles in the “Encyclopedia of Keyboard Instruments – The Piano.”

In 1997 he founded the STACCATO-Verlag and started, as founder and chief editor, the only German piano-magazine “PianoNews.” The STACCATO-Verlag also publishes books on piano, and has most recently published the autobiography of the pianist Lazar Berman. In 2003 he founded the magazine ENSEMBLE, the German chamber music magazine.

Carsten D?rer regularly participates in international Piano Competitions and has joined many press juries in different competitions, as well as being a visitor at international piano academies, master classes and piano manufacturers.