Alistair Zaldua

Born 1970 in London.

Alistair Zaldua studied composition with James Dillon and conducting with Zsolt Nagy. He received a DAAD fellowship to study with Mathias Spahlinger at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Freiburg, completing his studies in 1995-1997.

In 2007 he was composer in residence at the ZKM Karlsruhe. Previously he was a resident at the Foundation Bartels, Basel; Heinrich Ströbel Stiftung/Experimental Studio, Freiburg and was part of an artist’s exchange project in Hiroshima/Tokyo due to the Uchida Fellowship.

Since 1998 he has worked as conductor of the new music ensemble at the University of Music, Freiburg (Institut für Neue Musik). He has worked with different ensembles like ensemble ascolta, Stuttgart; Ensemble Aventure, Freiburg; Ensemble Modern, Frankfurt and SWR Chamber Ensemble.

His works have been performed at Festivals in Europe and South America such as ECLAT and ISCM World Music Days, Stuttgart; Música Nova, Sao Paolo; Freiburger Frühling, Quantensprünge ZKM/IEMA, Karlsruhe; Forum neuer Musik, DLF/Cologne. As a conductor he has performed and premiered works by, amongst others, Roland Breitenfeld, Brian Ferneyhough and Michael Finnissy.