Born in 1967 in London, she studied composition with Nigel Osborne in Edinburgh and Wolfgang Rihm in Karlsruhe. In her works she focuses on the sculptural and spatial properties of organised sound. For instance, chroma I – XX as well as Stasis and Stasis Kollektiv are expanding spatial collages of up to twenty-five chamber groups and sound sources set in radically different architectural spaces. insideout, a 90-minute collage for a choreographed installation, created in collaboration with Sasha Waltz, was her first work for the stage and received over 100 international performances. Yes, an expansive 80-minute spatial installation composition, was written for Musikfabrik, Donatienne Michel-Dansac, and Enno Poppe for the extraordinary architectural spaces of the Berlin Philharmonie and St Eustache church in Paris. Sauders has also composed instrumental works, pursuing a keen interest in works in the concerto and concertante form. Her compositions have been performed by excellent soloists such as Marco Blaauw, ensembles like Musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien, Modern, Dal Niente, Asko|Schönberg, Arditti Quartet, Quatuor Diotima, Resonanz, Recherche, Remix, ICE, and Neue Vocalsolisten, as well as orchestras: SWRSO, WDRSO, BBC Symphony, and many others. 

Saunders is in great demand as a composition tutor and teaches regularly at, amongst others, the Darmstadt Summer Courses and at the Impuls Academy in Graz. She lives in Berlin and is a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts and the Saxon Academy of Arts in Dresden. Saunders’s music has been published by Edition Peters since 1997. 

Selected works (since 2013): ...of waters making moan for accordion (2013), Solitude for cello (2013), Void for percussion duo and orchestra (2013–14), Alba for trumpet and orchestra (2014), Six for AK for two percussionists, two pianists, guitar and harp (2015), Aether for two bass clarinets (2014–16), Skin for soprano and 13 instruments (2015–16), White for double trumpet (2015–16), Bite for flute (2016), Yes, spatial composition for soprano and ensemble (2016–17), O for soprano (2017), Unbreathed for string quartet (2017), dust for violin and piano (2017–18), Flesh for accordion (2018), Hauch for violin (2018), Metal Bottle Necks for electric guitar (2018), Sole, trio for accordion, percussion and piano (2018), Stirring Still III for seven performers (2019), Withinnan, study of the piano from within (2019), Nether, concerto for soprano, 19 instruments, music-boxes (two performers) and two players (2019), dust II for percussion duo (2018–20), The Mouth for soprano and tape (2018–20), Scar for 16 soloists-instrumentalists and conductor (2018–20), Moving Picture 946-3 for trumpet and acoustically manipulated sound to a film by Corinna Belz and Gerhard Richter (2019–20), to an utterance, piano concerto (2020), Myriad III, concert installation (2020), Dust III for group of percussionists, 14 instruments and conductor (2018–21), That Time for baritone saxophone, percussion and piano (2019–21), Myriad II, concert installation (2022), Us Dead Talk Love for alto, saxophone, synthesiser, electric guitar and percussion to a text by Ed Atkins (2021), Hauch. Music for dance, collage for seven instruments, percussion and (optional) dancer (2021), Myriad I, collage of four ensemble pieces (2021), Wound, concerto for ensemble and orchestra (2022), Skull for ensemble (2022–23).