Dr Hildegard Kaluza
Head of Cultural Department, Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Since January 2019 Dr Hildegard Kaluza has been head of the Cultural Department of the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). Prior to that she has held various other leading roles in different governmental departments in NRW and Bremen, such as family policy, community projects, and labour market policy. She also worked in human resources in the steel industry for many years. Her background is in economics and she has a long-standing interest in social, societal, cultural and political issues.
Dr Christian Esch
Director, NRW KULTURsekretariat, Wuppertal, Germany
After studying musicology and receiving a PhD in this field, Esch was awarded a six-month residence at the Deutsches Studienzentrum in Venice and published academic papers, especially on the composers Mozart and Haydn. For many years he was active as a musical dramaturge and dramatic adviser, employed and freelance, in Frankfurt, Innsbruck and Munich, among others. In addition he has published numerous articles and reviews for both newspapers and specialized journals. As a producer and editor he developed and organised state-wide concert series for the Hessischer Rundfunk, programmed theme-based concerts for the RSO Frankfurt and produced numerous radio broadcasts and CD recordings. Esch collaborated for many years with the Goethe Institute's Music Committee and has taught at various academies (Innsbruck, Munich, Cologne). He has been a member of countless juries, including the European Cultural Foundation, and publishes regularly on the subject of culture. He has been director of the NRW KULTURsekretariat since 2004. He was recently awarded the Grimme Online Award for the internet platform nrw-museum.de.
photo©Sven Pacher_NRW KULTURsekretariat
Prasanna Oommen
Moderator, Cologne, Germany
Prasanna Oommen has been working for 20 years as a public relations officer, moderator (German/English) and author in the fields of Politics, Civil Society, Culture, Education and Media.
She was the press spokeswoman for various institutions and companies in North Rhine-Westphalia and Hessen and is a former board member and active member of Neue Deutsche Medienmacher e. V. Since January 2019, she has been a member of the Expert Committee appointed by the NRW state government for the Media Theme Forum as part of the Ruhr Conference.
Prasanna Oommen has studied German, English and Political Science. After she finished her M.A. , she first worked as a freelance journalist and dubbing artist in the radio and the film industry, before she took a leading position as a press spokeswoman for a private TV channel. She is a trained classical dancer (Cologne/Bangalore) and has worked for many years in arts education for children and adults in Cologne and Bonn.