Silke Zimmermann has held several positions in the international music and festival scene. For the Berliner Festspiele (including Berlinale, Theatertreffen Berlin, Musikfest Berlin, the Jazzfest Berlin), she shaped and organized more than twenty new film and musical festival venues in the newly reunited capital of Berlin.
She gained musical expertise as Director of Artist Coordination & Marketing for SONY Classical & Jazz International, comprising the labels SONY Classical, RCA Red Seal, deutsche harmonia mundi, ARTE NOVA etc.
In 2010, she became director of Schloss Elmau's ambitious cultural program (classical, jazz, literature, film) which encompasses about 250 cultural events annually. Schloss Elmau presents such artists as Martha Argerich, Julian Barnes, Lisa Batiashvili, T.C. Boyle, Yefim Bronfman, Gautier Capuçon, Christopher Clark, Paolo Fresu, Sol Gabetta, Jan Garbarek, Timothy Garton Ash, Christian Gerhaher, Daniel Hope, Janine Jansen, Hans Jonas, Leonidas Kavakos, Gidon Kremer, Nils Landgren, Walter Laqueur, Ian McEwan, Mischa Maisky, Brad Mehldau, Milos Karadaglic, Viktoria Mullova, Sophie Pacini, Gregory Porter, Thomas Quasthoff, Grigory Sokolov, Martin Stadtfeld, Esbjörn Svensson, Daniil Trifonov, Maxim Vengerov, Jan Vogler, Yuja Wang, Michael Wollny, Frank Peter Zimmermann, among others. In 2015, Silke organized the cultural program for the G7 summit, which took place in this secluded location in the Bavarian Alps.
Since 2010, she has been pooling this experience in her own agency, Silke Zimmermann Consulting, fostering international talent and cultural concepts around the globe. In this function, she advises festivals, political institutions, artists from various backgrounds worldwide.