Renate Zimmermann (born 1936 in Berlin) is a German

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

. Zimmermann (''née'' Marx) studied organ in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

and

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

. She received her first job as a lecturer for

musical improvisation Musical improvisation (also known as musical extemporization) is the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous ...

at the

Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule The (Spandau school of church music) was a music academy in Spandau, Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1929, it was housed in the in Spandau and was closed in 1998. The schools choir appeared and recorded as the Spandauer Kantorei. It was located in t ...

. In 1977 she took over a professorship for organ playing at the

Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts The Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (german: Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main, italic=no, link=no, HfMDK) is a state Hochschule for music, theatre and dance in Frankfurt and is the only one of its k ...

. In addition, she continued to teach in

Berlin-Spandau Spandau () is a locality (''Ortsteil'') of Berlin in the homonymous borough (''Bezirk'') of Spandau. The historic city is situated, for the most part, on the western banks of the Havel river. As of 2020 the estimated population of Spandau was 39, ...

and Heidelberg and, since 1985, as a guest lecturer at the Detmold Academy of Music. In 1988 she was awarded the first full-time professorship for organ improvisation in Germany at the

Hochschule für Musik Detmold The Hochschule für Musik Detmold is a university-level music school situated in Detmold, Germany. Academics The Hochschule offers performance degrees in composition, all orchestral instruments, piano, voice, opera, art-song, conducting, as we ...

. Since her retirement, Zimmermann has given numerous courses in Germany, England, America, Korea and China. Zimmermann was married to the composer

Heinz Werner Zimmermann Heinz Werner Zimmermann (11 August 1930 – 25 January 2022) was a German composer, focused on contemporary sacred music. He was professor of composition at the Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule and the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing A ...

(d. 2022).Frankfurter Neue Presse
''Zur Person. Ein Komponist von Weltrang''
retrieved on 6 April 2020.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zimmermann, Renate 1936 births Living people Academic staff of the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts German classical organists Musicians from Berlin Women organists