Prizes in international competitions during the 1990s – among them the Premio Stradivari in Cremona, the German National Music Competition and the Concours International de Musique de Genève – marked the start of Eckart Runge’s active career as soloist.

Runge has collaborated with various orchestras, such as the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Museumsorchester Frankfurt, der Staatskapelle Halle and the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie Koblenz.

His greatest passion is concertos that converge classical music and jazz, tango and film music. In 2018, Runge made a world-premiere recording of a jazzy cello  concerto by Nikolai Kapustin with the RSB orchestra Berlin and Frank Stobel. Further projects include the recording of concertos by Friedrich Gulda, Daniel Schnyder, John Williams and Nino Rota.