Paavo Johannes Heininen (born 13 January 1938 in Järvenpää) is a Finnish composer and pianist. He studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where he was taught composition by Aarre Merikanto, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Einar Englund, and Joonas Kokkonen. He continued his studies in Cologne with Bernd Alois Zimmermann; at the Juilliard School of Music in New York with Vincent Persichetti and Eduard Steuermann; and privately in Poland with Witold Lutosławski. He has also studied musicology at the University of Helsinki.