Graduated from the Alma-Ata Art College in 1965. He worked in the Alma-Ata Theatre for Young Audience, the Abai Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre (Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Bizet-Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, Isakov’s Hamlet, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet).
His works for the Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre gained him a wide popularity. Among them were Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Kobekin’s The Prophet, Lobanov’s Antigona, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya, Khachaturyan’s Gayane. Ernst Heidebrecht, together with director Alexander Titel and conductor Evgeny Brazhnik, was one of the creators of the “Sverdlovsk phenomenon” which enjoyed great critical acclaim in the early 1980s.
In 1984 to1990 Heidebrecht was the Chief Designer of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belorussia (Prokofiev’s War and Peace, Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, Soltan’s King Stakh's Wild Hunt, Tchaikovsky’s The Swan Lake, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Ravel’s Bolero).
Since 1990 he has lived in Germany, working at theatres in Germany, Switzerland, and Portugal. He collaborates with the Novaya Opera Theatre (Verdi’s Traviata, Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci), the Rostov Music Theatre (Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and The Swan Lake, Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade, Ravel’s Bolero, Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers, the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre (Dvorăk’s …her name was Rusalochka, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and others).
He has also designed numerous drama productions.
Productions:
Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci — Set Designer
Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana — Set Designer
Verdi's La Traviata — Set Designer