Monique Heidema got her first cello lessons only at the age of 16. She studied at the Conservatory in Amsterdam and at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, where she graduated her Master degree in „teaching” and „soloperforming” with distinction.

She got masterclasses from the British cellists William Pleeth and Colin Carr, the famous German pedagogue Gerhard Mantel, the Dutch baroque specialist Anner Bijlsma and the Russian cellists Dimitri Ferschtman, Ivan Monighetti and Mtsislav Rostropovich. For the masterclass with Rostropovich she was chosen as one of the few Dutch cellists to play for him during the anniversary of the Dutch queen Beatrix.

Monique Heidema is playing all kinds of different repertoire; she is a well-known baroque player, but also the Dutch composer Peter-Jan Wagemans dedicated her the composition for two cellos "Frage: worauf hoffen”.

Together with the pianist André Telderman she formed a duo since many years. They gave concerts in all different concerthalls in the Netherlands.

She is the cellist in the Piano Quartet Indigo since 2002. The another members of the quartet are the Russian violinist Natalia Morozova, the Israeli viola player Ron Ephrat and the Dutch pianist André Telderman. With this quartet she made several concerttours f.i. to Russia where they play concerts in the famous concerthall „the Philharmony” and the Hermitage in st. Petersburg. Next summer the quartet is invited for already the 6th time to be the guest of the festival „Mariënbad Nocturnes” in the Czech Republic. Here they play many chamber music concerts and they ‚will give masterclasses to music students from all over the world.

For a long period she was one of the cellists of the „cello octet Amsterdam” and the „Doelen-kwartet” which is an Dutch ensemble playing contemporary classical music. She also used to play in the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, where she started already as a student till 6 years ago. As a soloist she played with several orchestras in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and the Czech Republic.

Monique Heidema played concerts not only in the Netherlands, but also in France, Spain, Great Britain, Sweden, Belgium, Canada, Liechtenstein Russia, the Czech Republic, Taiwan and the United States.

She is regularly asked to take part in committees and juries, as for example for entrance examinations of the young talent class of the Conservatory in Rotterdam, during the State exams of the Schumann Academy, or at the concours of Stichting Jong Netherlands Music talent and the Prinses Christina concours.

Monique Heidema is the principal teacher cello for young talented cellists, bachelor and master students at the „Fontys Conservatory Tilburg”, the “Sweelinck Academy of the Conservatory of Amsterdam” and at the centre of art „Nieuwe

Veste” Breda.

She was invited to give masterclasses for cello students in Taiwan (2015) and Spain (2016) and Italy (2017).

Monique plays a beautiful cello by Romeo Antoniazzi (1920, Cremona) loaned to her by the Dutch National Musical instruments Fund..

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