Heather Pinkham is a pianist, composer, and musicologist originally from California and residing in The Netherlands. She holds a Master of Music in Composition from Fontys Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Tilburg (where she studied with Anthony Fiumara), a Master of Arts degree in Cognitive Musicology from the University of Amsterdam, and a Bachelor of Arts double major in Music (piano performance and musicology) and Italian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. During this time, she studied with Richard Taruskin, Nicholas Mathew, and Jacqueline Chew, among others. After graduating with her bachelor’s degree, Heather studied for two years privately with prominent Bay Area pianist, Diane Hidy.
Heather plays as guest pianist with a variety of ensembles, most recently touring with the corona composition from Tim Kliphuis, The Five Elements. She also plays in the contemporary music trio No Piece of Wood, with Sjors van der Mark on electric guitar and Hanna van Rooijen, soprano. With this trio, she performs, among other contemporary repertoire, her own music. She also accompanies several choirs. In addition to composing for her own ensemble, Heather has composed for soloists Ralph van Raat, Vincent van Amsterdam, Niek Baar, Maya Fridman, and Tom Sanderman, among others. She has also composed pieces for the Merced Symphony Orchestra in California, the Euregio Jeugdorkest, November Music Festival, the Nationale Opera Studio, and the Opera Forward Festival (2020) in Amsterdam. In May 2020, Heather initiated the project Music for Empty Spaces, in which 12 composers (including herself) wrote 12 pieces for 12 solo musicians, all reflecting on the corona crisis. The event was live-streamed by NPO Radio 4 from an empty Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam.
Music is
the air I breathe
While at UC Berkeley, Heather studied piano with Jacqueline Chew and Debora Petrina. She also spent a year in a full-immersion Italian language study abroad program at L’Universita’ degli studi di Padova, in Padua, Italy. Heather has participated in masterclasses with prominent fortepianists Malcolm Bilson, Bart van Oort, and Geoffrey Govier, as well as with leading modern piano accompanist Malcolm Martineau. In 2014, she participated in a summer chamber music workshop at La Schola Cantorum in Paris. While there, she participated in masterclasses with Henri Gronnier, Simone Dinnerstein, and Roy Howat.
Heather graduated with her Master’s in Cognitive Musicology from the University of Amsterdam in September, 2015. Her thesis consisted of a self-designed study using the Implication Realization Model (as developed by Eugene Narmour) as a basis for evaluating the differences of production and perception of melodies and melodic expectancy between musicology and conservatory students in the Netherlands.
Before moving to The Netherlands, Heather played with several choirs and ensembles in the San Francisco Bay Area. Notably, Heather was the rehearsal pianist and orchestral pianist/organist for Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra, with whom she toured Eastern Europe in 2013. During this time, Heather was also a session musician at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Heather has previously toured with various choirs to LA and New York; during one of these tours she had the opportunity to perform in Carnegie Hall.