From 1955 he was a full-time cantor, first in Leipzig and later until 1976 in Dresden-Loschwitz. Between 1961 and 1981 Steude worked first as a freelancer and then full-time in the music department of the Saxon State Library in Dresden. In 1985, he was jointly responsible for the Heinrich Schütz Honour of the GDR and was honoured for this with the National Prize of the German Democratic Republic. Until 1996 he worked first as a lecturer and curator, and from 1992 as professor at the Dresden University of Music.
Steude was regarded as one of the most important Schütz researchers. The association "Heinrich Schütz in Dresden" was founded under his leadership in January 2006. As part of the musicology department, he built up the Heinrich-Schütz-Archive [de], which was officially opened in 1988. His research work covered Central German music and the cultivation of music from Middle Ages to Baroque. In addition, he was engaged for many years in the church choir of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony.
Wolfram Steude: Annäherung durch Distanz. Texte zur älteren mitteldeutschen Musik und Musikgeschichte.[1] On the occasion of the 70th birthday of Wolfram Steude ed. by Matthias Herrmann. Kamprad, Altenburg 2001, ISBN3-930550-18-0 (pp. 257–263: Bibliographie Steude).
Wolfram Steude: Heinrich Schütz – Mensch, Werk, Wirkung. Texte und Reden.[2] With a foreword by Josua Rifkin, edited by Matthias Herrmann, Marburg 2016 (Dresdner Schriften zur Musik, vol. 7), ISBN978-3-8288-3840-6 (pp. 355–340 Bibliographie Steude about Schütz).