Milko Kersten is an orchestra pedagogue at the Heinrich Schütz Conservatory in Dresden, professor of ensemble work at the Dresden University of Music, a freelance conductor and president of the Saxon Music Council. He was a member of the Dresden Kreuzchor and studied conducting, choral conducting and piano at the Dresden University of Music.
After his first engagement in Zwickau as 1st Kapellmeister and acting chief conductor, he returned to the Elbe and has been working there ever since with various orchestras and ensembles, e. g. with the Sinfonietta Dresden, the Collegium Marianum Prag or the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra Dresden. He has a permanent position at the Heinrich Schütz Conservatory in Dresden, where he shapes the work of the orchestra. He is also the musical director of the Serkowitz Volksoper.
Since 1996, he has held a teaching position for ensemble at the Dresden University of Music, has been an honorary professor there since 2013 and a member of the university council since 2019. From 2000 to 2020, he was the artistic director of the Saxony State Youth Orchestra, with which he toured the world. From 2010 to 2021, he also took over the artistic direction of the ensemble Chorus 116, where he passionately cultivated the choral symphonic repertoire.
In 2019, Milko Kersten was elected president of the Saxon Music Council. In 2023, he was re-elected. In the same year, he was also appointed to the Dresden City Council's Music and Performing Arts Advisory Board.
Until 2022, he was a member of the music advisory board of the cultural foundation of the Free State of Saxony and then took on the same role in the state capital. In May 2021, he was appointed to the board of trustees of the Europa Chor Akademie Görlitz. Since 2022, he has also been a jury member of the Akademie des Kammermusikfestes Oberlausitz and of the advisory board of the German Music Council.
Since 2006, he has conducted a family concert with his students from the Heinrich Schütz Conservatory, together with members of the partner orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic.