Born near Aachen in 1970, Heiko has been part of the Cologne-based band HÖHNER since 2018.
Heiko received his first drum lessons at the age of 8. Quite early on, his teacher prepared him for the 'Jugend musiziert' competition, in which he took part for the first time in 1980 and which he won as national winner in 1982, 1984 & 1986.
As his education was mainly in classical music, in 1984 he became a member of the Federal Youth Orchestra (Bundesjugendorchester) in 1984 and played there until 1988.
From 1987-1992 he finally studied classical percussion at the "Hochschule für Musik Köln" in Aachen with Josef Offelder.
After his successful graduation, however, he preferred to make jazz and pop music and then studied jazz for another 3 years from 1993-1996 at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Arnhem/Netherlands with Joop van Erven and René Creemers.
At the same time he received a scholarship from Berklee College of Music Boston/USA.
He has been a freelance musician since 1997 and has since accompanied a wide variety of artists such as:
Christopher Cross
Jeff Lorber
Nathan East
Gerald Albright
David Benoit
Tommy Engel,
Cat Ballou
Matthias Reim
Marc Metzger
Dä Blötschkopp‘
Jörg Knör
Pe Werner
Max Mutzke
Sandy (No Angels)
Nino De Angelo
Anna-Maria Kaufmann
Angelo Kelly
uvm.
In 2001, Heiko was the drummer on the German TV show "Hast Du Töne" on VOX.
Together with the band 'Toenlein Brillant' he played over 200 shows. Even back then he worked with SONOR together.
In June 2024, the show finally made a comeback on Sat1. With SONOR again, of course.