Founders

Paula Heise

paula.heise@newclassicalsociety.com

Paula Heise is a conductor and musician focused on 20th-century music. She studied at the Landesgymnasium für Musik Wernigerode (2015–2022) and performed with the Magdeburg Neue Musik Ensemble specializing in 21st-century repertoire, collaborating with renowned groups such as Mosaik Ensemble. She served as musical director at the Schauspiel Leipzig, contributed to projects with the Deutsche Chorverband, and developed projects for the Hanns-Eisler-Gesellschaft. Since 2023, she is studying choral conducting at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg under Jörn Hinnerk Andresen.

Erik Aren Schroeder

erik.schroeder@newclassicalsociety.com

Erik Aren Schroeder is an Italian-American composer and violinist. His studies at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg in historical performance practice, under Hiro Kurosaki and Reinhard Goebel, and music theory, under Dr. Juliane Brandes, have afforded him broad expertise in the music of the past five centuries. His compositions, grounded in historical styles, include an opera, an oratorio, diverse instrumental works, and music for the 2025 World Expo in Osaka. He is active regularly and internationally as a violinist, performing with various period instrument ensembles and orchestras, and since 2024 has been employed in archival and musicological work at the Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg.