OUR FEATURED ARTIST IS: HEIDI BREYER
Heidi Breyer was born in the UK in 1969, and attended the Arts Educational School in Hertfordshire. There, along with her academic studies, she received a multi-disciplinary arts immersion that included ballet, modern, jazz and national dance, drama and intensive musical training in piano, violin, theory, harmony, general musicianship, voice, and ear training.
During her high school years, she continued her focus at Leeds College of Music. She went on to Trinity College of Music in London, earning an Honors degree (Graduate of Trinity College, London, GTCL) in Music History with a Licentiate of Trinity College in Piano. Her piano professors, were Eva Bernatova and Anthony Lindsay who studied with the great Arturo Benedetti Michaelangeli.
At the time of her graduation, Antony Lindsay advised Heidi that in order to manifest the breadth of her talent she should experience the true grit of life. And indeed, that is what Heidi did, turning away from playing any type of music for 15 years, unaware that she was starving herself of her most intuitive, innate musical gifts.
During this time away from music, Heidi built a formative career in publishing as a product marketing manager for RR Donnelley and Sons in both the U.K. and subsequently in the U.S. In 1996, in the unfamiliar geography of the state of Ohio, she married Jack Angier and had two beautiful children who became her reason for existence.
However, with both children under the age of 3 and with Jack away working 5 days a week, their marriage became strained and in 2007, they separated. The children remained with Heidi and during this difficult period and she began to approach the piano again, making its re-acquaintance through simple pieces by her favorite masters: Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, and Ravel.
In 2008, Alexander Volkov, a realist oil painter and then neighbor, asked Heidi to record some Chopin to accompany footage of the making of his painting, “Nobody’s Gold.” Heidi asked if she could write a piece of music instead. Alexander agreed, and this creative collaboration unlocked the artistic valve, allowing Heidi to re-access her musical creativity. What followed in the next decade was a string of 6 albums.
In 2009, Heidi produced her own Christmas album, “Winter Light,” and sent it to Will Ackerman, the Founder of Windham Hill Records. Ackerman called a few weeks later, and along with Corin Nelsen as engineer, she recorded her 2010 debut award-winning studio album, “Another Place and Time,” a set of piano-instrumental tone-poem duets.
In 2012, Corin Nelsen produced Breyer’s multi award-winning collection, “Beyond The Turning,” which to date contains two of her best-selling pieces. The following year Heidi opened the first live show for the Zone Music Reporter Awards, and that same year had two songs featured on the Grammy® nominated spoken word album, “The Storm King,” an auto-biographical narration of the late Pete Seeger, produced again by Nelsen and producer Jeff Haynes.
In 2015, Heidi wrote and produced, “Letters From Far Away,” with Will Ackerman and Tom Eaton, a dedication to her parent’s story, who wrote letters to each other for years and eventually found their way to each other.
By 2018 Heidi and Alexander had been living together for 10 years and married a year. Over the years, Heidi had come to know and love deeply Alexander’s art which culminated in the multi award-winning collection,“Moonlight In Empty Rooms.” Each of the 12 piano and violin pieces on the album were written in response to a corresponding painting by Alexander. On this album she is accompanied solely by violinist, Charlie Bisharat.
During the intensely creative years of 2008 to present, Heidi and Alexander dug deep into their art forms. But it was in 2012, alarmed by the world in which her children were fast becoming young adults, that Heidi began to channel her observations; she perceived a world in which everyone, in some capacity, seemed to be struggling or re-engineering themselves for survival.
Media portrayals of the migration of refugees from war-torn areas, mass shootings, domestic violence, and other forms of oppression, racial brutality, dissent of human rights disturbed her greatly. There seemed to be turmoil everywhere, Heidi’s compassion for humanity poured forth through her music, which emphasized the grace and dignity of people during these times of adversity.
A decade later, this repeated cycle of absorption and creation resulted in, “Amor Aeternus, A Requiem For The Common Man.” (Our Featured Album).
Of this music, Heidi writes:
“This is a tribute to the strength of the human spirit, as well as the mourning of the loss of a simple life. Whatever you contribute during a performance of this work, it should emanate from your core, no matter the sound of broken sustained notes, dynamic demands, and general stamina required for this hour of music. Just sing out from your heart in a moment of gratitude, while we continue to endure so much. We
must begin to listen to one another, have patience, and bring whatever abilities we all have to the collective table so we can survive this moment in history and surrender to a better future. We are living through a pivotal time and this work, along with an abundance of other music, can help carry the weight.”
Official artist website: https://www.heidibreyer.com
