Heike Matthiesen

• Name — Heike Matthiesen • Born — 27 June 1964 • Birthplace — Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, West Germany • Died — 22 December 2023 • Occupation — Classical guitarist • Website — https: heikematthiesen.com/en/home-2/

Matthiesen was born in Braunschweig into a family of classical musicians; her father was a choral conductor and her mother a pianist. From early childhood, she enjoyed comprehensive musical training, playing the piano. Matthiesen took her first guitar lessons at the age of 18, and after one year she studied with Heinz Teuchert at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt. During her studies, she played in the Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester. Pepe Romero, who taught her for several years, was the formative influence on her playing. In addition, she attended master classes with Manuel Barrueco, David Russell, Roland Dyens, Alvaro Pierri and Leo Brouwer, among others.

Matthiesen worked as a soloist, and she also regularly performed with chamber music ensembles. From 1997 she was closely affiliated with Villa Musica in Mainz. In 1996, she replaced Pepe Romero in a Los Romeros concert, and she recorded a CD with the Spanish Art Guitar Quartet in 2005. Matthiesen performed in many countries, including the US, Russia, Japan, China, all around western Europe, Iceland, Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Equatorial Guinea. She played at festivals and in guitar concert series, and was a juror in national and international competitions. Matthiesen was passionate about the music of women composers which she promoted. She was from 2017 a board member of the Internationaler Arbeitskreis Frau und Musik (tr. "International Working Group Women and Music"), running the Archiv Frau und Musik (Archive Woman & Music) of compositions by women composers, and curated its guitar repertoire. She commissioned works by women, and played compositions by women from many centuries. She said in an interview: In our loud chaotic world there is a strong need for calmness and awareness of the presence (also for silence) and what else can bring that better to the people than the fragile sound of a guitar? Matthiesen represented a new generation of classical musician, communicative, open for new media and an avid ambassador for classical music on relevant social media platforms.

Matthiesen lived in Frankfurt. In August 2019 she was diagnosed with melanoma on the skin of her neck, and underwent surgery at the Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt. Matthiesen died of cancer on 22 December 2023, at the age of 59.

• Gioachino Giussani 1990 "Alsuhail " • Roy Fankhänel 2015 "RF160"