Ever since its founding, the vocal ensemble Schola Heidelberg, conducted by Walter Nußbaum, has bridged the gap between early and new vocal music. Up to 16 soloists constituting the ensemble command highly varied styles and vocal techniques, including microtonal intonation, vocal and breathing noises.

In close contact with leading composers of our times (including Heinz Holliger, Helmut Lachenmann, Peter Eötvös, Stefano Gervasoni, Hans Zender), Schola Heidelberg has a broad repertoire, but also commissions new works ­regularly, for example the series of pieces con­stituting the projects Netzwerk Madrigal or Prinzhorn. Under the roof of the KlangForum Heidelberg e.V., the vocal ensemble has been united with the instrumental ensemble aisthesis since 1993. Outside its own concert series in Heidelberg, Schola Heidelberg regularly appears at festivals like the, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, Musikfest Berlin, Salzburg Biennial, Milano Musica, Festival of Flanders, Lucerne Festival, Venice Biennial, MDR Musiksommer, working with the Ensemble Modern, WDR Symphony Orchestra, SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, among others.

Schola Heidelberg has recorded CDs featuring works by Helmut Lachenmann, Gérard Grisey and vocal compositions of the 20th century. In 2005, the DVD Furcht und Verlangen was released. Gérard Grisey’s Les Chants de l’amour won the Diapason d’Or in 2008; the recording of Helmut Lachenmann’s Les Consolations was placed on the best of list of the German Record Critics in 2009. A CD with works by René Leibowitz has been released recently.