From 1956 to 1959 Hans Zender studied piano, conducting and composition (the latter with Wolfgang Fortner) in Frankfurt am Main and Freiburg im Breisgau. From 1959 to 1963 he was Kapellmeister of the Municipal Theatres in Freiburg im Breisgau, after which he became Principal Conductor at the Stadttheater in Bonn. In 1964-65 he attended the Second Cologne Courses for New Music at the Rheinische Musikhochschule, under the artistic direction of Karlheinz Stockhausen. In 1968 he was called to Kiel, where he was General Music Director until 1972. In this year he began his activity as Principal Conductor of the Radio-Symphony Orchestra in Saarbrucken. In 1984 he became Head of the Hamburg State Opera and General Music Director of the orchestra there, changing in 1987 to the position of Conductor in Chief of the Chamber Orchestra of Radio Netherlands in Hilversum, where he worked until 1990.