The pianist Matthias Alteheld, born in Lemgo (Germany), began his studies with Edmundo Lasheras at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold. He then specialised in the performance of art song with the groundbreaking and style-defining duo Mitsuko Shirai and Hartmut Höll at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, where he graduated with honors. In addition to his studies he took masterclasses with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Renate Kretschmar-Fischer, Charles Spencer and Eberhard Feltz. 
Matthias Alteheld is an award-winner of several national and international competitions. He drew attention to himself by winning prizes at the Paula Lindberg-Salomon Competition, the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb in Berlin, the 4th International Competition Franz Schubert and Modern Music in Graz and the 1st International Art Song Competition Stuttgart. 
The versatile pianist regularly plays concerts and art song recitals with a wide-ranging repertoire encompassing the complete German romantic Lied repertoire, as well as modern compositions and French, English, Spanish, Russian and Scandinavian art song. He performed in Berlin, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, London, Vienna and Helsinki, among others, and was a guest at the Rheingau-Musik-Festival and the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. He has done recordings for the Südwestrundfunk (SWR), the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and the Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR). He regularly works with renowned and outstanding vocal artists such as the bass-baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann, the baritone Markus Eiche, the tenor Christian Elsner, the soprano Evgenia Grekova, the bassbaritone Andreas Wolf and the baritone Wolfgang Newerla, among others. In addition to his career as a performer, Matthias Alteheld also gives masterclasses, and holds seminars and speeches about art song. For a number of years now, he has been regularly invited to organize and lead the Musikalische Werkstattgespräche, a music workshop discussion, at the Entrepreneurs’ Talks in Baden-Baden, Germany. 
After holding a teaching post at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe for several years, in October 2013 Matthias Alteheld was appointed professor for art song performance at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. A theme central to his teaching is how to make art song come alive in an artistic duo partnership