Hans Zender

Johannes Wolfgang Zender (22 November 1936 – 22 October 2019) was a German conductor and composer. He was the chief conductor of several opera houses, and his compositions, many of them vocal music, have been performed at international festivals.

As a conductor, he worked at the Theater Freiburg, Theater Bonn, Opernhaus Kiel and Hamburg State Opera, and led the radio orchestra Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern. He taught at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt. His opera Stephen Climax premiered in 1986 at the Oper Frankfurt, and his third opera, Chief Joseph, premiered in 2005 at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.

Career Born in Wiesbaden, Zender attended the Maifestspiele at age 13, listening to concerts conducted by Carl Schuricht, Karl Böhm and Günter Wand, among others. He took piano lessons and learned to play the organ. From 1949, he went each year to the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, where he got to know trends in new music by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Olivier Messiaen and John Cage. Canto I–VI for various forces I: for choir, flute, piano, strings and percussion (1965) II: for soprano, choir and orchestra on a text by Ezra Pound (1967) III: for soprano, tenor, baritone, ten instruments and live-electronics on texts by Cervantes (1968) IV: for 16 voices and 16 instruments (1969/72) V: for voices with optional percussion (1972/74) VI: for bass-baritone, a capella mixed choir, and optional tape (1988) 3 Rondels nach Mallarmé (3 Rondels after Mallarmé) for alto, flute and viola (1966); words by Stéphane Mallarmé Modelle for variable forces (1971–73) Zeitströme for orchestra (1974) Elemente, tape montage for two loudspeaker groups (1976) Hölderlin lesen I for string quartet with sprechstimme (1979); words by Friedrich Hölderlin Hölderlin lesen II for sprechstimme, viola, and live-electronics (1987); words by Friedrich Hölderlin "denn wiederkommen" (Hölderlin lesen III) for string quartet and sprechstimme (1991) Mnemosyne (Hölderlin lesen IV) for female voice, string quartet, and tape (2000) Fünf Haiku (LO-SHU IV) for flute and strings (1982) Dialog mit Haydn for two pianos and three orchestral groups (1982) Stephen Climax, opera (1979–84, premiered in 1986) Don Quijote de la Mancha, opera (1989–91, premiered in 1993; new version 1994, premiered in 1999) Schuberts "Winterreise" — Eine komponierte Interpretation for tenor and small orchestra (1993) Shir Hashirim—Lied der Lieder (Canto VIII), oratorio for soli, choir, orchestra, and live-electronics (1992/96, complete première in 1998) Schumann-Fantasie for large orchestra (1997) Chief Joseph, on the life of Chief Joseph, musical theatre in three acts (premiered in 2005)

Writings Zender, Hans. 2004. Die Sinne denken. Texte zur Musik 1975-2003. Edited by Jörn Peter Hiekel. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel. (a nearly complete edition of Zender's writings) ———.1999. "A Road Map for Orpheus?" In Theory into Practice: Composition, Performance, and the Listening Experience. Collected writings of the Orpheus Institute 2. Edited by Peter Dejans. Leuven: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. ———. 1991. Happy New Ears. Das Abenteuer, Musik zu hören. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder. ———. 1998. Wir steigen niemals in denselben Fluß. Wie Musikhören sich wandelt. Second edition. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder.

Awards Zender's awards include: 1963/64: Villa Massimo scholarship 1997: Goethe Prize of Frankfurt