Paula Muldoon is a violinist, composer, and software engineer based in Cambridge, UK. The leader of the Cambridge Philharmonic Orchestra from 2017 – 2025 and a Staff Software Engineer at Zopa Bank, she thrives on the intersection of music and programming. Upcoming projects for the 2025-26 season include the premiere of  her second string quartet, guest leading the Norwich Baroque Orchestra, and chamber music concerts in Cambridgeshire.

Paula is a former member of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and subsequently spent several years living in London and performing worldwide with ensembles including the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment, along with conductors such as Andris Nelsons, Sir Simon Rattle, Marin Alsop, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Further highlights of her musical career include guest leading the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra in China, recordings at Abbey Road Studios, and performances at Carnegie Hall.

As leader of the Cambridge Philharmonic, Paula’s interpretation of the solo part to Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldeneben was lauded as having “impressive sensitivity”. Paula enjoys guest leading other orchestras in East Anglia; highlights include performing the solo violin part to Scheherezade with the Norfolk Symphony Orchestra.

You can hear Paula play her own piece, Get Outside, on Spotify and iTunes and you can purchase her sheet music at her Etsy shop, MusicByPaula. She is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (MMus 2012) and the University of Michigan (B.M. 2010), and the New England Conservatory Preparatory School (Violin Certificate, 2005), studying with Detlef Hahn, Aaron Berofsky and Lynn Chang.

While at the University of Michigan, she won the Undergraduate Award for Classics Translation and was a semi-finalist in the prestigious Hopwood writing competition for her novel The White Birds. She is also one of WeAreTechWomen’s 100 Women in Tech, was named to the Computer Weekly Women in Software Power List in 2019 and 2020, and was named to the Women in Fintech Powerlist in 2024. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, crocheting, yoga, cryptic crosswords, gardening, Star Trek, and playing with her Cockapoo.