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‘… the luminous “Syng, Hevin Imperiall”
... closed in a mood of gorgeous calm after a
gauzily beautiful opening…’ New York Times
‘The term "avantgarde" is changing and
Dobrinka is one of those lending it a new meaning.
Her credo… consists of a simple basic idea: That
something new can always be found, even in the most
familiar places. Her music, therefore, sets out to
explore this zone of familiarity and the unknown,
never drawing any borders…’ Tobias Fischer,
music writer and broadcaster |
Photo: Benjamin Ealovega
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Dobrinka Tabakova is a
composer of ‘exciting, deeply moving’ music
(Washington Times), with ‘glowing tonal harmonies
and grand, sweeping gestures [which] convey a huge
emotional depth’ (The Strad). She has been
commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society, BBC
Radio 3 and the European Broadcasting Union. Her
debut profile album String Paths, on ECM Records,
was nominated for a Grammy in 2014. In 2017 she was
appointed composer-in-residence with the BBC Concert
Orchestra. An album of her orchestral works,
recorded by the Halle Orchestra is released in
October 2023.
Born in the historic town of Plovdiv, Bulgaria,
Tabakova has lived in London since 1991, graduating
from the Guildhall School of Music, and obtaining a
PhD from King’s College London. Her “riveting,
piercingly beautiful and frequently radiant” music (Huffpost
Arts & Culture) has featured in films (Jean-Luc
Godard’s Adieu au langage), dance (Sydney Dance
Company, San Francisco Ballet, Theater St.Gallen)
and has been programmed at festivals across Europe
and the US including: the BBC Proms (UK),
Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), Bang on a Can (USA),
World Sun Songs (Latvia) and Dark Music Days
(Iceland). Tabakova has been resident composer at
the Davos Summer Festival in Switzerland and Truro
Cathedral, Cornwall (UK), as well as with the MDR
Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra
of the Swan (Stratford, UK).
Among prizes for her work are the prize for an
anthem for Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee and
First Prize and Medallion at the Sorel Choral
Composition Contest in New York. Significant
projects include Immortal Shakespeare, a
cantata commemorating Shakespeare's 400th
anniversary in 2016, the multi-commissioned double
piano concerto Together Remember to Dance
and the choir and strings work Centuries of
Meditations for the Three Choirs Festival.
Tabakova’s second album, devoted to her choral music
and performed by the Truro Cathedral Choir with the
BBCCO, was released by Regent Records, receiving a
2019 Gramophone Magazine Critics’ Choice. In 2021,
Dobrinka Tabakova completed her orchestral Earth
Suite for the BBC Concert Orchestra and the
violin concerto The Patience of Trees for
the Manchester International Festival. In 2022, she
was named The Halle Orchestra's artist in
association.
Forthcoming projects include a new album and
premieres with The Halle Оrchestra, an extensive
tour of the UK’s great cathedrals with vocal
ensemble The Sixteen, celebrating William Byrd's
400th anniversary with two new commissions from
Tabakova, as well as a follow-up ECM Records album.
Dobrinka Tabakova is represented internationally by
Schott Music
May 2023
January
Full biography
here
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