Continuum XXI
Ensemble Modern
hr-Bigband
hr-Sinfonieorchester
IEMA-Ensemble 2025/26
Synergy Vocals
Trondheim Voices
Alberto Arroyo
Hed Bahack
Sylvain Cambreling
Helena Cánovas Parés
Pia Davila
Caio de Azevedo
Justine Emard
Bernard Foccroulle
Georg Friedrich Haas
John Hollenbeck
Eloain Lovis Hübner
Justė Janulytė
Michael Jarrell
Malika Kishino
Eungjin Lee
Lucie Leguay
Leon Liang
Brad Lubman
Sarah Nemstov
Felicitas Magdalena Pfaus
Julian Prégardien
Steve Reich
Diego Ramos Rodríguez
Rebecca Saunders
Yixie Shen
Miroslav SRNKA
Toby Thatcher
Thierry Tidrow
Stefan Weiller
Adriane Westerbarkey
Haotian Yu
Artist
© Astrid AckermannRebecca Saunders
With her distinctive and intensely striking sonic language, Berlin-based British composer Rebecca Saunders (b.1967) is a leading international representative of her generation. Born in London, she studied composition with Nigel Osborne in Edinburgh and Wolfgang Rihm in Karlsruhe.
Saunders pursues an intense interest in the sculptural and spatial properties of organised sound. chroma I - XX (2003-2017), Stasis and Stasis Kollektiv (2011/16) are expanding spatial collages of up to twenty-five chamber groups and sound sources set in radically different architectural spaces. ›insideout‹, a 90-minute collage for a choreographed installation, created in collaboration with Sasha Waltz, was her first work for the stage and received over 100 international performances. Most recently in 2017, ›Yes‹, an expansive 80-minute spatial installation composition, was written for Musikfabrik, Donatienne Michel-Dansac and Enno Poppe for the extraordinary architectural spaces of the Berlin Philharmonie and the St. Eustache Cathedral in Paris.
Saunders’ music has been performed and premiered by many prestigious ensembles, soloists and orchestras including Ensemble Musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Quatuor Diotima, Ensemble Dal Niente, Asko|Schönberg, the Arditti Quartet, Ensemble Resonanz, Ensemble Recherche, ICE, the Neue Vocalsolisten, Ensemble Remix, SWRSO, WDRSO and the BBCSO, amongst many others.
Saunders is in great demand as a composition tutor and teaches regularly at, amongst others, the Darmstadt Summer Courses and at the Impuls Academy in Graz. She lives in Berlin and is a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts and the Sachsen Academy of Arts in Dresden.
Rebecca Saunders’ works are published by Edition Peters.