Born in the United Kingdom, composer Rebecca Saunders currently lives primarily in Berlin. Taking up the violin in her youth, she pursued studies of music at Edinburgh University. She went on to study composition with Wolfgang Rihm at the Karlsruhe Musikhochschule from 1991 to 1994, and with Nigel Osborne in Edinburgh from 1994 to 1997. Prizes from the Berlin Academy of Arts in 1995 and the Ernst von Siemens Foundation in 1996 allowed her to work in New York and Brussels.

Saunders has received numerous accolades, including the Busoni Förderspreis, Musica Viva, the Paul Hindemith Prize, the Royal Philharmonic Society Chamber Music Prize (2008), the GEMA Deutscher Musikautorenpreis (2010), and the Mauricio Kagel Prize (2015).

In 2009, she became a member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts, and was in-house composer at the Dresden Staatskapelle during the 2009-10 season. She teaches regularly at the Darmstadt Summer Courses and IMPULS Academy in Graz. In 2011, she became a composition professor at the Hannover Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien.

Among the particularities of Saunders’ varied catalogue are the use of mechanical instruments, e.g., music boxes in Crimson – Molly’s Song 1 (1995), inspired by the final monologue of Molly Bloom in Joyce’s Ulysses, and spatialisation, as in Chroma (2003), a “variable” work which must be adapted to the spatial context in which it is performed, and which is perceived by the audience according to their movements within the space. Space and silence, interrupted by concise musical utterances, are key parameters in Saunder’s musical conception. In 2003, her first theatrical work, Insideout, a “choreographic installation” written in collaboration with Sasha Waltz, was premiered.

In 2001, Saunders published her first vocal work, Albescere; in it, the voices are treated like instruments in the ensemble, and no text is used. She subsequently composed Miniata (2004) and company (2008) for choir and ensemble. In 2007, Soliloquy, for six voices a cappella, was commissioned and premiered by Neue Vokalsolisten, and in 2016, Skin, for soprano and ensemble, was premiered at the Donaueschinger Musiktage by Julie Fraser and Klangforum Wien, with Titus Engel conducting.

Works such as Stirrings Still I (2006) and II (2008), Murmurs (2009), Stasis (2011), and Yes (2017) call for the spatialised disposition of musicians in the performance space. Noteworthy among Saunders’ recent pieces - many instrumental - are chamber works such as fletch for string quartet, premiered in 2012 by the Arditti Quartet, and Stasis II for trumpet, oboe, percussion, and piano, premiered by Musikfabrik in 2014; and concertos, i.e., Still (2011) for violin, Ire for cello, strings, and percussion (2012), and Alba (2014), for trumpet.

In June 2018, Saunders was in attendance at ManiFeste Festival and Academy for the French premiere of Skin, for soprano and thirteen instruments, at the Pompidou Centre, and for a performance of Fury at The Church of Saint-Merri. IRCAM subsequently commissioned a new work, The Mouth, for soprano and electronics, for ManiFeste 2020.

In 2019, Rebecca Saunders was awarded the Ernst Von Siemens Foundation Music Prize.