She is a true expert in piano chamber music, but has also studied song interpretation with the best in this discipline. Angelika Merkle not only studied piano with Klaus Schilde in Munich and Leonard Hokanson in Bloomington (USA), but also took lessons with Helmut Deutsch and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in Berlin.
Angelika Merkle was a pupil of Prof. Hugo Steurer in Munich and England from the age of 14 until she graduated from high school. During this time, she won first prize in the "Mozart für die Jugend" competition and was a prizewinner in the national "Jugend musiziert" competition. In 1985, she began her studies at the Munich Academy of Music with Prof. Klaus Schilde, which she completed with excellent marks and a two-year master class. She continued her studies with Prof. Leonard Hokanson at Indiana University in Bloomington on a scholarship from the "Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes". She completed her studies in song interpretation with Prof. Helmut Deutsch and Prof. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in Berlin. She took part in several master classes with Brigitte Fassbaender and Gyorgy Sebok.
Angelika Merkle is a prizewinner of the "Münchener Konzertgesellschaft", the Yehudi Menuhin sponsorship "Live Music Now" and the "Villa Musica" foundation. In 1994, she won first prize in the international chamber music competition "Carlo Soliva" as well as first prize in the renowned international competition "Vittorio Gui". This was followed by an international concert career as a chamber musician. CD recordings, television recordings and radio recordings with BR, HR, RAI, Radio Suisse Romande, in Mexico and Chile. Her recording of Strauss opus 6 was described by the American magazine "Fanfare" as the best recording of this sonata. She gives numerous courses in piano chamber music at home and abroad. Her students have won prizes at national and international competitions, and she is particularly interested in the early promotion of young ensembles in the field of piano chamber music.
After teaching at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich (1994-2003), Angelika Merkle has been Professor of Piano Chamber Music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Frankfurt am Main since October 2003. From 1999-2020 she also held a teaching position for piano chamber music at the University of Music in Karlsruhe. In 2006 Angelika Merkle became a lecturer at the Villa Musica Foundation, and since 2008 she has been a member of the management group of the German chamber music course of "Jugend musiziert". She heads the master's degree course in piano chamber music at the HfMDK Frankfurt. In 2014, she took over the artistic direction of the renowned chamber music series "Festeburgkonzerte", also in Frankfurt am Main.
From 2020-2023, Angelika Merkle was Dean at the HfMDK Frankfurt, she is a liaison lecturer for the Studienstiftung. Since 2020, she has headed the music education project "COMM!T": a format in which chamber music processes are brought closer to the audience. Since 2022, she has been artistic director of the International Schumann Chamber Music Prize Frankfurt am Main.

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