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Aileen Schneider is an award-winning, formally trained opera director, (stage) writer, and spoken word poet. From 2012 to 2016, she studied music theatre directing at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre. During this time, she staged The Sound of a Voice by Philip Glass at the Opera Stabile of the Hamburg State Opera in 2015, before successfully completing her studies in 2016 with a new production of Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis.

From 2017 to 2020, she was employed as an assistant director at the Staatstheater Augsburg. There, she also realized productions such as the children’s opera Die große Wörterfabrik and, in 2021, In the Penal Colony by Philip Glass. From 2020 to 2025, she worked in the same position at Oper Frankfurt.

In 2025, she staged Melusine by Aribert Reimann there to great acclaim, for which she was awarded the prestigious Götz Friedrich Prize for directing. In the same year, she also returned to the Staatstheater Augsburg with a new production of Carmen.

Further productions were created for the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern and the Landestheater Detmold. For the latter, she also wrote two libretti, which were set to music by Linus Mahler (ICH/ICH/ICH, 2023) and Patrick Schäfer (VIEL ZU FEEL, 2025).

Since 2024, Aileen Schneider has held a teaching position in acting at the University of Music Würzburg. From 2021 to 2024, she held a similar position at the Mainz University of Music.

She is also a professional spoken word poet and host. In 2022, she won the Hesse Poetry Slam Championship, and in 2024 her spoken word solo program was featured on Arte’s literature stage at the Frankfurt Book Fair. In spring 2026, her essayistic collection of theatre and spoken word texts, Ich tu so als ob und du tust so als ob du’s glaubst (“I Pretend As If and You Pretend to Believe It”), was published by Lektora Verlag. She also hosts events such as the “Dead vs. Alive” poetry slam at Schauspiel Frankfurt, as well as readings for the Hessian Literary Council and the Textland Literature Festival.

In her youth, she won prizes at “Jugend musiziert” in piano, and also received regular training in saxophone and voice. She was active as a composer as well, receiving a three-year composition scholarship from the Yamaha Music Foundation in 2001 as its youngest participant, and winning the national composition competition of Jeunesses Musicales in 2011. She was also a scholarship holder of the Richard Wagner Foundation and the Alfred Toepfer Foundation for innovative concert ideas.