Hans Zender studied piano, conducting, and composition (with Wolfgang Fortner) at the Frankfurt and Fribourg-en-Brisgau Conservatories from 1956 to 1963.

After a year as composer-in-residence at Villa Massimo in Rome (1963-1964), he started a career as a conductor, serving as the Musical Director of the Bonn Opera for four years before returning to Rome in 1968-1969. He was then hired by the Kiel Opera, and from 1971 to 1984, conducted the Saarland Radio Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester in Saarbrücken, before serving as the Musical Director at the Hamburg Opera from 1984 to 1987. He participated in the Bayreuth, Salzburg, Berlin, and Vienna Festivals.

In addition to conducting the Dutch Radio and Monnaie Theatre (Brussels) Orchestras, and serving, since 1999, as a member of the artistic committees of the Baden-Baden and Südwestrundfunk (Freiburg) Orchestras, Hans Zender was active as a teacher. He taught composition at the Frankfurt Musikhochschule from 1988 to 2000. In 1999, he was the guest of honour at Villa Massimo in Rome.

Zender emerged as a major composer in the 1960s, notably through his works for voice, such as the series of eight Canti for different vocal and instrumental ensembles, his staged works, such as Don Quijote de la Mancha (1989-1991*)* and Stephen Climax (1979-1984), and his adaptations and orchestrations, e.g., Cinq Préludes de Claude Debussy (1991) and Schubert’s «Winterreise» (1993).

Initially influenced by the works of Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Pierre Boulez, he later rejected the dogmatic aspects of serial music, turning instead to spirituality and Eastern art and philosophy. Many of his works were inspired by East-Asian calligraphy and poetry (notably of Japan), such as the orchestral cycle Kalligraphie (1997-2004), Muji no kyo(1974), and*Fûrin No Kyô(1989). His works in general are nonetheless firmly rooted in Western literature and thought: Heraclitus of Ephesus, the Bible, Meister Eckhart (e.g.,Kantate nach Worten von Meister Eckhart(1980)), John of the Cross (e.g.,Tres canciones*(2005)), and Hölderlin (e.g.,Hölderlin lesen (1979-1991), a cycle of works for chamber ensemble).

Awards, Grants, and Prizes

• Composer-in-residence at Klangspuren Schwaz, 2013
• Prize of Sacred European Music (Preis der Europäischen Kirchenmusik), 2011
• Associate of the Berlin Institute of Science, 2005
• Culture Prize from the City of Hessen, 2002
• Goethe Prize, Frankfurt, 1997
• Member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, 1994
• Member of the Academy of the Arts, Berlin, 1989