Tabea Zimmermann Named as Chair of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Board

The German violist was the recipient of the foundation's €250,000 prize in 2020

German violist Tabea Zimmermann has been named as the next Chair of the Board for the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. She succeeded the organization's former Chair, Peter Ruzicka, on July 3, 2023.

In 2020, Zimmermann received the foundation's flagship award, the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize. Valued at €250,000, the prize is awarded annually to a performer, composer, or musicologist who has made a distinguished contribution to the world of music.

In the past, this prize has supported figures such as violinists Yehudi Menuhin, Gidon Kremer, and Anne-Sophie Mutter, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, conductors Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Mariss Jansons, and Claudio Abbado, and composer György Ligeti.

One of the world's foremost violists, Zimmermann has been artist-in-residence at the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Royal Concertebouw Orchestra, and regularly appears as soloist with prominent orchestras across the globe.

She is the dedicatee of numerous works, including Ligeti's Sonata for Solo Viola, and has made more than 50 recordings — including a complete cycle of Hindemith's works for viola, released on myrios classics in 2013.

"I have experienced how wonderfully this foundation works, how much value is placed on supporting the artists," Zimmermann said. "I received the prize at a time when I am still in the middle of my life and there are now many opportunities to work in committees, to follow my chamber music approach and to create together with others, to exchange ideas and to take others with me. Therefore, it is now an honor and also a great responsibility for me to take over the chairmanship of the Board of Trustees of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation."

"The foundation is wonderfully positioned with its targeted support of new music," she added. "It is a great merit of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation to support contemporary music in this way, to give artistic natures freedom and to encourage them in their activities. For a foundation to be involved to this extent is unique in the world."