Tabea Zimmermann is a musician of captivating versatility. As a soloist and chamber musician, she performs worldwide, teaches, and nurtures talents. At eleven years old, she made her debut on the stage of the Berlin Philharmonie. Competition successes in Geneva, Paris, and Budapest between 1982 and 1984 catapulted her to prominence. Shortly after, she accepted a position at the University of Music Saarland, where at 21 she became the youngest professor in Germany. After tenures in Frankfurt and Berlin, she returned to the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts in 2023. Zimmermann specializes in contemporary music; in 1994 she premiered a solo sonata dedicated to her by György Ligeti. Composers such as Heinz Holliger, Wolfgang Rihm, and Georges Lentz wrote pieces for her. Zimmermann argues that engaging with contemporary music also influences interpretations of the classical repertoire. Zimmermann remains a sought–after partner for many orchestras and festivals. She has held residencies with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, to name a few. Zimmermann was a president of the Beethoven–Haus Bonn and is currently the president of the Swiss Hindemith Foundation. She has always revered Hindemith, with the recording of his complete works for viola (2013) being a long–held desire. In 2023, she was awarded honorary membership, the highest honour of the German Music Council, in tribute to her passionate and dedicated commitment to musical life. Since July 2023, she chairs the board of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, dedicated to promoting contemporary music through an award she herself won in 2020. She has also established her own foundation, named after her late first husband, David Shallon, which supports unique, intercultural music projects such as the “Lebensmelodien” of clarinettist Nur Ben Shalom, which revives Jewish music from the Holocaust era. For her extensive contributions, she has been honored with numerous musical awards and societal recognitions, including the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.