Lena Herber (in Julian Beutmüller’s class), a student of church music, has been awarded the City of Würzburg’s 2026 Cultural Promotion Prize. Lena (born 1999) is a choir conductor, founder and artistic director of the vocal ensemble Connexus. She has been working as a choir director since the age of 16 and has gained a wide range of experience with various choral ensembles. In 2025, she won first prize as well as the special prize for the best interpretation of Romantic music at the International Choral Conducting Competition in Preveza (Greece). In 2022, she was awarded third prize at the International Conducting Competition in Marktoberdorf; in 2025, she was also a semi-finalist at the international conducting competitions in Wrocław and Parma. In December 2026, she was awarded the City of Würzburg’s Cultural Promotion Prize in recognition of her artistic work. In June 2026, she completed her Master’s degree in choral conducting under Prof. Benedikt Haag at the Würzburg University of Music. During her studies, she undertook an Erasmus exchange at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, studying under Fredrik Malmberg, Mats Nilsson and B. Tommy Andersson.

In July 2026, she conducted the Taipei Philharmonic Chamber Choir at the opening concert of the Taipei International Choral Festival. She gained valuable insights from masterclasses with Georg Grün, Florian Helgath, Justin Doyle and Yuval Weinberg. She has also worked with ensembles such as the SWR Vocal Ensemble, the Zürcher Sing-Akademie, VOCES8 and the Swedish Radio Choir. From 2022 to 2024, she served as musical assistant at the Würzburg Cathedral Music Department. Alongside her work as a conductor, Lena Herber continues to study church music at the Würzburg University of Music and is active as an ensemble singer and organist.