British composer Rebecca Sauders will be the new Udo Zimmermann Guest Lecturer at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music Dresden. The 58-year-old will offer insights into her extraordinary sound world through lectures and concerts, the institution announced on Wednesday.

Rebecca Saunders

"With Rebecca Saunders, we are welcoming an artist whose works, which are incredibly diverse in color and full of energy, have garnered worldwide attention," said Jörn Peter Hiekel, head of the Institute for New Music at the HfM Dresden.

The visiting professorship was established in 2021 by Saskia Zimmermann, widow of the Dresden composer Udo Zimmermann, following his death. It provides students with the opportunity "to work directly with influential figures in intensive rehearsal phases year after year and to present the results together," explained Hiekel. This creates a connection between teaching and artistic practice for the students "that is hardly available in this intensity outside of universities and that can be a key experience for their future careers," he added.

Previous Zimmermann guest lecturers include the Romanian-German composer and pianist Adriana Hölszky and the Greek composer Georges Aperghis.

Zimmermann, born in Dresden in 1943, studied composition, conducting, and singing in his hometown. In 1976, he became a lecturer at the Dresden Academy of Music and three years later was appointed professor of composition. He died in 2021 at the age of 78.

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