Education
Born in London, Saunders studied violin and composition at the University of Edinburgh, earning a Doctor of Philosophy in Composition in 1997. As a German Academic Exchange Service scholar, she studied with Wolfgang Rihm from 1991 to 1994 at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. Nigel Osborne supervised her doctoral thesis.
Career
She lives and works as a freelance composer in Berlin. In 2010 and 2012, she taught at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses and was composer-in-residence at the Konzerthaus Dortmund from 2005-2006, Staatskapelle Dresden from 2009-2010, and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2010. Fabio Luisi and the Staatskapelle Dresden gave the United Kingdom premiere of Saunders" revision of traces at the 2009 Proms.
Membership
Akademie der Künste Berlin.