Born in Weimar, pianist Daniel Heide is one of the vocal accompanists and chamber musicians most in demand on the current international music scene, making appearances throughout Europe as well as in the Far East. Heide studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in his hometown with Prof. Ludwig Bätzel, and received valuable counsel from outstanding artists including Christa Ludwig and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
He collaborates on a regular basis with renowned vocalists including Andrè Schuen, Christoph Prégardien, Konstantin Krimmel, Julian Prégardien, Simone Kermes, Katharina Konradi, Patrick Grahl, Ingeborg Danz, Britta Schwarz, Johannes Weisser, Roman Trekel, and Natalie Perez.
Heide also collaborated as a duo partner with the late German-Greek mezzo-soprano Stella Doufexis: their CD Poemes with artsongs by Claude Debussy was awarded the German Record Critics’ Prize.
In chamber music he gives public performances with soloists including Tabea Zimmermann, Antje Weithaas, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Jens Peter Maintz, Friedemann Eichhorn, Andreas Willwohl, Barbara Buntrock, Julian Steckel, Isang Enders, Konstanze von Gutzeit, Benoit Fromanger, Danjulo Ishizaka, and the Mandelring Quartett.
Heide laid a further foundation for his career as vocal accompanist in 2011, when he launched Der lyrische Salon at Ettersburg Castle near Weimar, a vocal recital series where he has accompanied a great number of outstanding singers on over 70 occasions.
Apart from his intense concert schedule, Heide’s activities are documented on a number of CD releases – most recently Dichterliebe with Patrick Grahl (CAvi, 2020), Liebende with Katharina Konradi (CAvi, 2021); Schubert‘s Die schöne Müllerin mit André Schuen released by DG (2021).
In 2016 André Schuen‘s first Lieder recital partnered with Daniel Heide received the ECHO, the album Wanderer 2019 the OPUS award (both CAvi-music). For the next years Daniel Heide is masterminding the 7 CD project with the complete songs by Franz Liszt subsequently folloed by a new work catalogue of Liszt‘s artsong output.
He also loves the genre of melodrama, working in spoken word programmes with actors and actresses of the likes of Christian Brückner, Thomas Thieme, Hanns Zischler, Markus Meyer, Sky Dumont, and Udo Samel.
For 13 years, Heide taught vocal accompaniment, chamber music, and instrumental accompaniment (Korrepetition) at the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin and at the Hochschule für Musik FRANZ LISZT Weimar. He is currently much in demand giving masterclasses and private coaching in the same areas, also with the intent of promoting and supporting young vocal artists and their piano partners.
With the onset of the Corona pandemic in March 2020, Daniel Heide devoted more of his time to studying solo piano repertoire, focussing on sonatas by Beethoven and Schubert.