[1] Petra van der Heide studied with Erika Waardenburg in Utrecht, Maria Graf in Hamburg and Charlotte Cassedanne-Yoran in Berlin.
In 1987, at the age of 16, she played in the 'Focus on Youth Concerts' during the 3rd World Harp Congress in Vienna and in subsequent years, won several prizes in national and international competitions.
[citation needed] She also held the post of solo harpist in the Darmstadt Opera for 5 years, before ultimately returning to Holland.
[citation needed] She has been the principal harpist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam since 2003, and has worked with conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Riccardo Chailly, Bernard Haitink, Lorin Maazel, Nicolaus Harnoncourt and Zubin Mehta.
She always tries to encourage composers to write new works for harp and has played in several different Festivals for modern music in Germany, like Donaueschingen and Darmstadt (Ferienkurse für neue Musik).