Henrik Magnus Schmidt was born in Weilburg an der Lahn in 1973, where he first received organ and later percussion and piano lessons.

After completing his Abitur and community service, he commenced studies at the Karlsruhe University of Music under Prof. Hans-Jörg Bayer, Prof. Jürgen Heinrich and Prof. Isao Nakamura, graduating with a distinction. He continued his education in 2002 and 2003 with an artistic postgraduate degree at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin under Prof. Edgar Guggeis and Prof. Rainer Seegers.

During his studies, he was a member of various international youth orchestras such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra and the European Youth Orchestra (EUYO).

He received his first permanent position as percussionist for timpani at the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra in 1998, between 2000 and 2003 he held the position of principal percussionist and deputy principal timpanist at the SWR Radio Orchestra Kaiserslautern.

Henrik M. Schmidt has been deputy principle percussionist of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin since 2003, where he was also a member of the Orchestra Committee from 2007 to 2009.      

Alongside his orchestral activities, he is not only a regular guest musician in Germany’s most important orchestras, he also devotes a considerable amount of his time to chamber music, both in the area of percussion, but also in combination with other instruments and ensembles. In 2004 he founded the percussion duo TWOtone together with Prof. Christian Hartmann (solo timpanist at the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich), and in 2010 he joined with Rüdiger Ruppert, Björn Matthiesen (Deutsche Oper Berlin) and Jens Hilse (Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin) to form the “Symphonic Percussion Ensemble Berlin”.

Solo concerts with various orchestras, concert tours to Asia, America and Europe, invitations to numerous music festivals and visiting lectureships at summer schools and universities attest his versatility as a musician.

Henrik M. Schmidt lectures at the Rostock University of Music and Drama. He was awarded an honorary professorship for his services to music in October 2016.