Born in Dessau, Flade was a pupil of Hans Jürgen Wenzel in the Composer class Halle [de].
From 1993 he studied musical composition with Jörg Herchet, music theory with Manfred Weiss as well as piano and conducting at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden.
With a DAAD scholarship he was in a master program at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, where he was taught by Nils Vigeland.
Since 2001 he has taught composition, acoustics, organology, instrumentation, ear training and Max/MSP in Dresden.
Since 2010 he is lecturer for ear training at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart.