Fokke van Heel studied at the conservatories of The Hague, Zwolle and Essen with Oldrich Milek and Hermann Baumann. As a soloist, he performed with, among other orchestras, the Nationaal Jeugd Orkest, the Orkest van het Oosten, Het Gelders Orkest and the Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest. He was a member of the Nederlands Balletorkest, the Noordhollands Philharmonisch Orkest and the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, and was appointed principal horn with the Nederlands PhilharmonischOrkest/Nederlands Kamerorkest in 1998. Fokke van Heel regularly plays in several chamber music ensembles, such as the Nieuw Ensemble, Asko/Schönberg and the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble. From 2007 to 2015 Fokke was a principal subject teacher at the ArtEZ Conservatory of Zwolle, and currently teaches horn as a principal subject at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam Sweelinck Academy.