At the International Horn Society (IHS) conference in Kraków, Prof. Will Sanders received the Punto Award – a prize and tribute in recognition of his outstanding contributions and services to the art of horn playing.
Many of his students have gone on to hold important positions all over the world, for example in Los Angeles, Tokyo, Shanghai, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Bogotá, Berlin, Munich, London, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Brussels, Athens, Kraków, Latvia, Estonia, Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
Will Sanders has been teaching at Hogeschool Zuyd in Maastricht since 1995 and was appointed professor at the HfM Karlsruhe in 1999. Prior to that, he was principal horn at the National Theatre in Mannheim, principal horn in the SWF Symphony Orchestra, principal horn in the BR Symphony Orchestra, and played for seven years with the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, as well as frequently appearing as a substitute with the Vienna Philharmonic.
He was a member of the Wind Art Ensemble, the Linos Ensemble and German Brass. In 1990, Will Sanders founded the German Horn Ensemble together with Stefan Dohr.
The award is named after Giovanni Punto, an outstanding Bohemian horn player for whom Beethoven wrote his Sonata for Piano and Horn.