Rebecca Saunders studied composition at Edinburgh University with Nigel Osborne and with Wolfgang Rihm in Germany. She currently lives in Berlin. One of the leading compositional voices of her generation, she has been recognised with several prestigious awards, including the Ernst von Siemens Förderpreis, the ARD und BMW musicaviva Prize, the Paul Hindemith Prize, the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Award For Chamber Music (in 2008 and 2012) and the GEMA Music Prize for Instrumental Music 2010. Saunders’ present compositional preoccupation is an investigation of the musical soloist in two distinct ways: since 2013 she has been writing an expansive series of works for individual performers, and simultaneously continuing her interest in works for soloist in a concerto role; either for solo and orchestra or for solo and special ensemble instrumentations, with concertos for double percussion and for trumpet planned in 2014 and 2015, and further solo and duo works.

Photo by Karin Schander.