Thomas Christoph Heyde

Thomas Christoph Heyde (born 12 November 1973) is a German composer, media artist and curator. He is chairman of the Forum Zeitgenössischer Musik Leipzig.
Life.
Heyde was born in Leipzig in 1973 as the son of a pastor. From the age of seven he was trained on the piano and later received private composition lessons from Lorenz Stolzenbach. Without passing his Abitur he first completed a pharmaceutical education and worked as a nurse in a Leipzig hospital. Via a special test he studied musical composition with Peter Herrmann and electroacoustic music with Eckhard Rödger at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig from 1994 on. Thanks to two scholarships he studied from 1997 to 1999 as for composition with Friedrich Schenker at the Academy of Arts, Berlin and with Thomas Kesseler at the of the City of Basel Music Academy.
From 1998 to 2006 he taught the new media art at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig and was head of the electronic studio there. From 2001 to 2002 he was organizer of the concert series "Sende(r)musik" of the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. (MDR). He was curator of several projects, including Interferences of , Düsseldorf (1998), the "Spinnerei-Festival" for contemporary music, Leipzig/Dresden (1999-2001), the "Musik-Zeit-Herbstfestival", Leipzig (2001), the "Matrix-Herbstfestival" for sound art, Leipzig (2003), the "Grenzregionen-Festival" for Eastern European music, Leipzig (2004), the project "ost. etc", Leipzig (2003) and the art festival "electric renaissance", Halle (2005). Since 2003 he is artistic director of the Forum Zeitgenössischer Musik Leipzig. FZML. He organized among others the international art and music project "Cage100" (2012/13) and the transmediale project ABENDMAHL - "diminishing horror | increasing love". In WS 2012/13 he was a lecturer on John Cage and in WS 2016/17 on musical concepts after 1945 at the Institute of Musicology of the University of Leipzig.
He writes mainly orchestral and chamber music. His compositions have been broadcast by Deutschlandradio, Deutschlandfunk, MDR, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Westdeutscher Rundfunk and Swiss Radio. His special interests are live electronics and video art. Thus he worked together with Ulrich Polster. The resulting art videos have been shown in museums in France and Great Britain.
With the professor of linguistics (University of Flensburg) he has two children. He is married to the psychologist and therapist Ina Habt.
Heyde is chairman of the board of Mosaik Leipzig e.V. The institution operates a migration consultancy service among others and a psychosocial centre for refugees.
Sound language.
The music journalist Dirk Wieschollek described Heyde as: "equally socialized with " classical music ", " new music " and " techno "". In the radio feuilleton of Deutschlandradio Kultur it was said: "He wants to inspire people for New Music who have little contact with high culture. Therefore he also has concerts played in very unusual places."