is an historian and folklorist at the “Museum für Alltagskultur der Griesen Gegend und Alte Synagoge Hagenow”. He studied recent and contemporary history as well as European ethnology at the Humboldt University in Berlin. He wrote his dissertation at the University of Kiel on “Instrumental Folk Music in Early-Modern Mecklenburg (1500-1800)”. Gehler is a member of the bands “Kwart” and “Malbrook”. He twice won the German World Music Prize Ruth, in 2005 and 2010. Bagpipes are Ralf Gehlen’s passion. He is one of the most renowned soloists on the Schäferpfeife in Germanya and has performed for audiences from Spain to Austria and from Holland to Sweden. As a talented instrument maker he reconstructs instruments from the Middle Ages, especially stringed instruments such as the keyed fiddle. Where others look to synthesizers for surprising sounds, he explores the past on an expedition for new sounds.