Erik Aren Schroeder is an Italian-American violinist, violist, and composer. He completed in 2023 a BA in baroque violin/viola at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, studying under Hiro Kurosaki, where he is currently pursuing studies in music theory (BA) and historical performance practice (MA) under Dr. Juliane Brandes and Reinhard Goebel, respectively. 

His compositions include an opera buffa, La Locandiera, which premiered in Salzburg in November 2022 and was tied to a project awarded in the 2022 Mozarteum Research Competition. The success of La Locandiera led directly to another large-scale composition, The Passions, an Ode for Music, a piece inspired by the English baroque ode/oratorio tradition and premiered in Salzburg in October 2023. Owing to his expertise in the music of the Classical period, Erik was asked alongside other composition students of the Universität Mozarteum to provide music for the Austrian pavilion at the 2025 World Expo in Osaka. His work on contemporary composition in historical styles has been the subject of presentations he has given at major international music theory conferences.

As a performer, Erik has studied and/or collaborated with leading Early Music specialists, including Alfredo Bernardini, Vittorio Ghielmi, Dorothee Oberlinger, Mayumi Hirasaki, Wolfgang Brunner, and others, and is active regularly and internationally as a baroque violinist and violist. Since 2024 he has been employed in archival work at the Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg.