Hans Zender

Born in Wiesbaden on 22 November 1936, died in Meersburg on 23 October 2019; Hans Zender was a conductor, composer and music theorist. From 1956 he studied piano with August Leopolder and composition with Kurt Hessenberg in Frankfurt am Main, and from 1957 in Freiburg with Wolfgang Fortner (composition), Edith Picht-Axenfeld (piano) and Carl Ueter (conducting). After beginnings at the Stadttheater Freiburg he was principal conductor in Bonn from 1966 to 1968, general music director in Kiel from 1969 to 1972, principal conductor of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken from 1971 to 1984 and general music director of the Hamburgische Staatsoper in 1984. From 1988 to 2000 he taught composition at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt am Main. His works include “Schuberts Winterreise – a composed interpretation” (1993) and the “Schumann-Phantasie” (1997); in 1997 he received the Frankfurter Musikpreis and the Goethe-Preis der Stadt Frankfurt. For Cybele Records he conducted the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken on the album Rolf Riehm: Orchestral Works (2005).