Dobrinka Tabakova ( Bulgarian: Добринка Табакова; born 1980,

Plovdiv Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

) is a Bulgarian-British composer.

Early life and education

Dobrinka Tabakova was born in

, to medical physicists Vassilka and

Slavik Tabakov Slavik Tabakov ( Bulgarian: Славик Табаков) is a British-Bulgarian medical physicist, President of the International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) 2015-2018 and Vice-President of the International Union for Physical and Eng ...

. She won the Jean-Frederic Perrenoud Prize of the 4th International Competition of Music in Vienna when she was 14 years old. She studied at

Alleyn's School Alleyn's School is a 4–18 co-educational, independent, Church of England, day school and sixth form in Dulwich, London, England. It is a registered charity and was originally part of Edward Alleyn's College of God's Gift charitable foundation ...

London and the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke ...

in London and graduated from

Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...

(GSMD) in London. Afterwards she was awarded a Ph.D. in composition from King's College, London. She studied composition under

Simon Bainbridge Simon Bainbridge (30 August 1952 – 2 April 2021) was a British composer. He was also a professor and head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and visiting professor at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, in the United ...

Diana Burrell Diana Elizabeth Jane Burrell (born 25 October 1948) is an English composer and viola player. Life and career Burrell was born on 25 October 1948 in Norwich, England. Her parents were Bernard Burrell, a schoolteacher by profession who served as ...

, Robert Keeley and

Andrew Schultz Andrew Schultz (born 18 August 1960 in Adelaide, South Australia) is an acclaimed Australian classical composer. A musician with a large and widely performed output and an international sphere of activity he has, since 2008, lived in Sydney, New S ...

and has attended master classes with

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...

Louis Andriessen Louis Joseph Andriessen (; 6 June 1939 – 1 July 2021) was a Dutch composer, pianist and academic teacher. Considered the most influential Dutch composer of his generation, he was a central proponent of The Hague school of composition. Althoug ...

Alexander Goehr Peter Alexander Goehr (; born 10 August 1932) is an English composer and academic. Goehr was born in Berlin in 1932, the son of the conductor and composer Walter Goehr, a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg. In his early twenties he emerged as a centra ...

Olav Anton Thommessen Olav Anton Thommessen (born 16 May 1946) is a Norwegian contemporary composer who has been one of the foremost modernist composers in Norway since the 1970s. His main compositions include ''Et glassperlespill'' and ''Gjennom Prisme''. He was a pr ...

and

Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde c ...

Compositional career

Dobrinka Tabakova's "Praise" was sung at

St. Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Gra ...

to celebrate the

Golden Jubilee A golden jubilee marks a 50th anniversary. It variously is applied to people, events, and nations. Bangladesh In Bangladesh, golden jubilee refers the 50th anniversary year of the separation from Pakistan and is called in Bengali ''"সু� ...

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

. She won the GSMD Lutosławski Composition Prize in 1999 and the Adam Prize of King's College London for the song cycle ''Sonnets to Sundry Notes in Music'' in 2007. In 2011 Dobrinka Tabakova was awarded first prize and medal of the Sorel Organization's choral competition in New York. Tabakova has received commissions from the

Royal Philharmonic Society The Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) is a British music society, formed in 1813. Its original purpose was to promote performances of instrumental music in London. Many composers and performers have taken part in its concerts. It is now a memb ...

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also featuring. The sta ...

Cheltenham Music Festival The Cheltenham Music Festival is a British music festival, held annually in Cheltenham in the summer months (June, July) since 1945. The festival is renowned for premieres of contemporary music, hosting over 250 music premieres as of July 2004. ...

Britten Sinfonia Britten Sinfonia is a chamber orchestra ensemble based in Cambridge, UK. It was created in 1992, following an initiative from Eastern Arts and a number of key figures including Nicholas Cleobury, who recognised the need for an orchestra in t ...

, Three Choirs Festival,

Wigmore Hall Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadi ...

and the PRS for Music Foundation's first UK New Music Biennial in 2014. Tabakova's compositions have been performed at music festivals throughout Britain, in Bulgaria, Hong Kong, Russia and throughout Europe and the United States. She was Composer in Residence at the Utrecht International Chamber Music Festival; at the

Kremerata Baltica Kremerata Baltica is a chamber orchestra consisting of musicians from Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania). It was founded by Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer in 1997. Gidon Kremer is an artistic director of Kremerata Baltica. Description ...

Festival in Sigulda, Latvia; and at the

Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival The Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival (alternate: ''Internationales Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus'') is an annual chamber music festival located in the Austrian state of Burgenland. It is held at three venues in Lockenhaus: Burg Lockenhaus castle, ...

, Austria, among others. Tabakova has worked with orchestras including Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Kammerorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Orchestra of the Swan and

BBC National Orchestra of Wales The BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW) ( cy, Cerddorfa Genedlaethol Gymreig y BBC) is a Welsh symphony orchestra and one of the BBC's five professional radio orchestras. The BBC NOW is the only professional symphony orchestra organisatio ...

. Her works have especially been performed by the violist

Maxim Rysanov Maxim Rysanov (born 1978) is a Ukrainian violist and conductor. Rysanov was born in Kramatorsk, and studied at the Central Special Music School in Moscow and later at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. In 2000 he won the Gold M ...

, as well as

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

ists

Gidon Kremer Gidon Kremer ( lv, Gidons Krēmers; born 27 February 1947) is a Latvian classical violinist, artistic director, and founder of Kremerata Baltica. Life and career Gidon Kremer was born in Riga. His father was Jewish and had survived the Holo ...

and Janine Jansen. Dobrinka Tabakova's works have been recorded for

Hyperion Records Hyperion Records is an independent British classical record label. History Hyperion is an independent British classical label that was established in 1980 with the goal of showcasing recordings of music in all genres and from all time period ...

and the Avie record label and in 2013

ECM Records ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) is an independent record label founded by Karl Egger, Manfred Eicher and Manfred Scheffner in Munich in 1969. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a variety of recordings, and ECM's ...

released an album devoted to her music, entitled ''String Paths''. The album reached No.2 in the UK specialist classical chart and attracted numerous positive reviews. On 6 December 2013 ''String Paths'' was nominated for the

56th Annual Grammy Awards The 56th Annual Grammy Awards presentation was held on January 26, 2014, at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The show was broadcast on CBS at 8 p.m. ET/PT and was hosted for the third time by LL Cool J. The show was moved to January to avoid comp ...

in the category "Best Classical Compendium" and was announced as one of the four albums supporting the Grammy nomination of ECM's founder and president

Manfred Eicher Manfred Eicher (born 9 July 1943) is a German record producer and the founder of ECM Records. Life and career Eicher was born in Lindau, Germany. He studied music at the Academy of Music in Berlin. He started as a double-bass player of classi ...

for "Producer of the Year, Classical".

Selected works

Orchestral *''Concerto for Viola and Strings'' (2004) *Schubert Arpeggione Sonata arrangement for string orchestra (2004) *''Suite in Old Style'' for viola, strings and harpsichord (2004) *''Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music'' for soprano and orchestra (2006/7) *''Concerto for Cello and Strings'' (2008) *''Sun Triptych'' for solo violin, cello and strings (2007–09) *''Concerto for Piano and Orchestra'' (2010) *''Fantasy homage to Schubert'' for string orchestra (2013) Chamber and solo instrumental *''Modetudes'' for solo piano (1998) *''In Focus'' for chamber ensemble (1999) *''Pirin'' for solo viola (2000) *''Insight'' for string trio (2002) *''Whispered Lullaby'' for viola and piano (2004) *''Frozen River Flows'' for oboe & percussion (2005) *''Such different paths'' for string septet (2008) *''Suite in Jazz Style'' for viola and piano (2008) *''Diptych'' for organ (2009) *''The Smile of the Flamboyant Wings, ''for string quartet (2010) Choral *'' Praise'' for S.A.T.B. choir and organ (2002) *''Of the Sun Born (От Слънце Родена)'' for S.A.T.B. choir and soprano solo (2008) *''On the South Downs'' for solo cello, orchestra and S.A.T.B. choir (2009) * for S.A.T.B. choir and organ (2011) *'' Centuries of Meditations'' for S.A.T.B. choir, string orchestra and harp (2012) *'' Alma Redemptoris Mater'' for S.A.T.B. choir (2014) *''Truro Canticles'' for S.A.T.B. Choir and organ (2017)

References

External links

*
List of compositions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tabakova, Dobrinka 1980 births Living people People educated at Alleyn's School Alumni of King's College London 20th-century classical composers Bulgarian classical composers Women classical composers Musicians from Plovdiv Bulgarian emigrants to the United Kingdom 21st-century women musicians 20th-century women composers