Morten Heide is a professional Danish choral conductor, concert pianist and piano teacher living in Stockholm, Sweden, where he graduated (June 2015) from the master in choral conducting at the Royal College of Music, with prof. Fredrik Malmberg as his principal teacher.
Morten Heide completed his bachelor's and master’s studies in piano (2006) at the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in Odense, Denmark, under the guidance of Christina Bjørkøe, Rosalind Bevan, Erik Kaltoft and John Damgaard. He often performed as soloist, e.g. in Simon Holt’s Era Madrugada and in György Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto as appointed pianist in the annual Music Harvest Festival Sinfonietta in Odense. He has performed as soloist and ensemble musician under the baton of e.g. Stefan Asbury, Paul Hoskins, Christopher Austin and Mei-Ann Chen. Morten Heide studied piano for one year at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg with Volker Banfield and Mirian Migdal with whom he prepared for his final master’s exam from the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in 2006.
In 2010 Morten Heide finished his post graduate performance studies (Soloist Class) in piano at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Odense, focusing on the interpretation of contemporary music. His debut concerts where highly praised in the press and broadcast by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation on radio channel P2.
In spring 2011 Morten Heide completed his first master’s in choral conducting at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Odense, studying with Alice Granum. In the same period Morten Heide toured Latvia together with Kolding Chamber Choir, leading the choir in well-received church concerts. Heide was conductor and musical director of Kolding Chamber Choir since September 2007 up until moving to Sweden. Apart from leading Kolding Chamber Choir he was also the conductor of Vestsjællands Chamber Choir since august 2011 and Jysk Akademisk Kor from 2012. Morten Heide has furthermore conducted such prominent professional choirs as The Danish National Vocal Ensemble, The Swedish Radio Choir and Eric Ericson Chamber Choir.
Many grants have given Morten Heide the opportunity to participate in masterclasses with, among others, the pianists Mirta Herrera, Alan Sternfeld, Roger Muraro, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen. His work together with Muraro, Aimard and Loriod-Messiaen focused mainly on the interpretation of contemporary piano music, especially that of the French composer Olivier Messiaen. Morten Heide has also participated in a series of master classes as choral conductor with the renowned Finnish choral conductor Timo Nouranne, the Swedish conductor Cecilia Rydinger Alin and the British conductor Paul Hillier.
Morten Heide has performed as soloist, chamber musician and vocal accompanist in concerts in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Iceland and Mexico. His pianistic focus is on forgotten gems of the great masters such as Bach’s Italian Variations, the music of Alkan and Reger, as well as on the music of the 20th and 21st centuries.
In August 2006 Morten Heide performed the Danish premiere of Manuel Ponce’s Concierto Romántico for piano and orchestra with Odense Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mei-Ann Chen.
In 2008 Morten Heide participated in the celebration of the centenary of French composer Olivier Messiaen performing among other pieces Messiaen's Quartet for the end of time and the vast piano cycle Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus in several concerts. Morten Heide is the first Danish pianist to have recorded the complete Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus.
Morten Heide is interested in exploring the ways in which the process of preparing and interpreting a musical work for performance may be compared and contrasted with more traditionally recognized forms of academic research. He is a member of NNIMIPA: Nordic Network for the Integration of Music Informatics, Performance and Aesthetics (http://www.nnimipa.org) in order to pursue this area of inquiry together with other researchers from conservatories and universities in the five Nordic countries. He is also affiliated with the University of Southern Denmark research program The Aesthetics of Music and Sound (http://www.soundmusicresearch.org).
