Foundations
For Tabea Zimmermann, it’s all about making an impact, not just in music but beyond. With her involvement in ll foundations, she is regularly seen at the at crossroads between music and society.
Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung
In July 2023, Tabea Zimmermann was appointed by the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts to succeed Peter Ruzicka as the new Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. She was already the winner of the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 2020; this award honoured her uncompromising music-making, her authentic, personal approach and artistic integrity as well as her uncompromising quality standards.
Commenting on her new role as Chair of the Foundation Board, Tabea Zimmermann says: “Having been awarded the Music Prize myself, I have experienced how wonderfully this foundation works and how much attention is paid to supporting the artists. It is therefore an honour and an enormous responsibility for me to take over the chairmanship of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation’s Board of Trustees. The foundation is in a fantastic position with its focused support for new music. It is a great achievement of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation to support contemporary music in this way, to offer freedom to artists and to encourage them in their creative work. The fact that a foundation is involved in this way is unique in the world.
Hindemith Foundation
As President of the Swiss Hindemith Foundation, Tabea Zimmermann is committed to raising awareness of the composer Paul Hindemith, who has always been one of her sources of musical inspiration and whose complete works for viola she recorded in 2013, among musicians, event organisers and audiences. The Foundation was established in 1968 to support and cultivate music in the spirit of Paul Hindemith, especially contemporary music, to spread the works of Paul Hindemith and awaken understanding for his art, to initiate scientific research in the field of music and to support the publication and dissemination of the resulting works. In 1974, the Foundation established the Hindemith Institute Frankfurt and in 1978 founded the Hindemith Music Centre Blonay. » www.hindemith.info/en/foundation/David Shallon Foundation
In memory of her beloved husband David Shallon (1950-2000), Tabea Zimmermann has initiated a foundation. The David Shallon Foundation awards scholarships to support special, border-crossing projects.
Currently, the Viatores Quartet, founded in 2023 at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin, is receiving a scholarship from the foundation. The quartet, whose name is inspired by the Latin “Viatores – travellers”, brings together four outstanding young musicians from three continents, Louisa Staples and Patricio Velásquez Cárdenas (violin), Gordon Lau (viola) and Umut Saglam (cello), united by their deep passion for chamber music despite their different roots.
The foundation’s previous and first scholarship holder was the clarinettist Nur Ben Shalom with his project “Lebensmelodien” (Melodies of Life), which brings forgotten Jewish music from the time of the Holocaust to concert halls, schools and public places such as synagogues, churches and mosques as an educational project supported by the German government’s anti-Semitism representative.
