Alla Pavlova (Russian: ''Алла Павлова'', born July 13, 1952 in Ukraine) is a Russian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, born and initially raised in

Vinnitsa Vinnytsia ( ; uk, Вінниця, ; yi, װיניצע) is a city in west-central Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug. It is the administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast and the largest city in the historic region of Podillia. A ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. She and her family moved to Moscow in 1961, and she then moved to

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York in 1990, where she has settled. She is best known for her symphonic work.

Biography

Soviet life

During the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

era, the Pavlova family was transferred to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

in 1961. There Alla received her Bachelor’s Degree in 1975 from the Ippolitov–Ivanov Music Institute, and in 1983 her Master’s Degree from the

Gnessin State Musical College The Gnessin State Musical College (russian: link=no, Государственный музыкальный колледж имени Гнесиных) and Gnesins Russian Academy of Music (russian: Российская академия музык� ...

. She studied with Armen Shakhbagyan, a composer with a reputation established in the 1970s, and paid special attention to the works of

Anna Akhmatova Anna Andreyevna Gorenko rus, А́нна Андре́евна Горе́нко, p=ˈanːə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡɐˈrʲɛnkə, a=Anna Andreyevna Gorenko.ru.oga, links=yes; uk, А́нна Андрі́ївна Горе́нко, Ánna Andríyivn ...

. This influenced a good part of her output until the 1990s. Following the achievement of her Master's in 1983, Pavlova moved to 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 Macedon ...

n capital of

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

, where she worked at the Union of Bulgarian Composers and the

Bulgarian National Opera The National Opera and Ballet ( bg, Национална опера и балет) is a national cultural institution in Bulgaria that covers opera and ballet. It is based in an imposing building in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. The first opera ...

. She returned to Moscow three years later. From 1986, Pavlova worked for the Russian Musical Society Board in Moscow, before relocating in 1990 to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

American life

Lieder and chamber music

Following her arrival in New York, Pavlova compiled a collection for her daughter Irene consisting of simple pieces for piano inspired by the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen. During the first half of the 1990s her compositions alternated between lieder and small works for

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

. In 1994, Pavlova produced her first major work, for a small chamber orchestra, ''Symphony no. 1 "Farewell Russia"''. The symphony seeks to convey the melancholic burden and feelings of pain the composer felt on leaving her home country. The work is articulated in a single movement, and is scored for a small

ensemble Ensemble may refer to: Art * Architectural ensemble * Ensemble (album), ''Ensemble'' (album), Kendji Girac 2015 album * Ensemble (band), a project of Olivier Alary * Ensemble cast (drama, comedy) * Ensemble (musical theatre), also known as the ...

consisting of two

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 regular ...

s, a

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

, a piano, a

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

, and a

piccolo The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...

,. It was recorded in Russia by soloists of the

Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra based in Moscow, Russia. It was founded in 1951 by Samuil Samosud, as the Moscow Youth Orchestra for young and inexperienced musicians, acquiring its current name in 1953. It is most associated wit ...

two days after its first performance. Pavlova waited for four years to compose her next work for larger forces, an ''Elegy'' (1998) for piano and string orchestra, barely four minutes long, motivated by the death of her teacher Shakhbagyan. Her first symphonic work following the Elegy was the ''Symphony no. 2 "For the New Millennium"'' (1998), written that same year, her most ambitious work to date. Even before being revised four years later, it was brought to CD by

Vladimir Fedoseyev Vladimir Ivanovich Fedoseyev ( rus, Владимир Иванович Федосе́ев, p=, links=no; born 5 August 1932, in Leningrad, Soviet Union) is a Soviet and Russian conductor, accordionist, teacher. People's Artist of the USSR (1980). ...

(who later became one of Pavlova's champions in Russia when he played and recorded the Fourth Symphony which firmly established Pavlova's reputation in Russia). Pavlova returned to the composition of lieder, composing pieces like ''Miss me... but let me go'' at the beginning of September 2001. In the same way that

Cristóbal Halffter Cristóbal Halffter Jiménez-Encina (24 March 1930 – 23 May 2021) was a Spanish classical composer. He was the nephew of two other composers, Rodolfo and Ernesto Halffter and is regarded as the most important Spanish composer of the gene ...

saw his composition ''Adagio en forma de Rondó'' changed by the terrorist attacks of

September 11 Events Pre-1600 * 9 – The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest ends: The Roman Empire suffers the greatest defeat of its history and the Rhine is established as the border between the Empire and the so-called barbarians for the next four hu ...

, Pavlova - who had been shocked by these attacks, and who lived quite close to

ground zero In relation to nuclear explosions and other large bombs, ground zero (also called surface zero) is the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation. In the case of an explosion above the ground, ''ground zero'' is the point on the groun ...

- decided to rededicate the song to the memory of the victims. Pavlova is a member of the New York Women Composers, Inc.

Specialization in the Grand Forms

Besides supporting her prestige, the Second Symphony marks an important point in Pavlova's career, as she moved away from chamber music in successive works in favor of large orchestral compositions. In 2000, she sealed this change of orientation with the monumental Symphony no. 3 which was inspired by a New York monument to

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronat ...

and is characterized by its intense expressive reach. Consistent with her habit of revising her works, Pavlova continued to work on this piece, adding a

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

in a new version which was premiered in 2004. Her ''Symphony no. 4'' was written in 2002, as well as a second concert work, a monologue with solo violin in which she again used a string orchestra. From 2003-2005 Pavlova worked on her first incidental music, for the

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

'' Sulamith'', to stage the 1908 story by

Aleksandr Kuprin Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin (russian: link=no, Александр Иванович Куприн; – 25 August 1938) was a Russian writer best known for his novels ''The Duel'' (1905)Kuprin scholar Nicholas Luker, in his biography ''A ...

inspired by the Biblical story of King Solomon. A symphonic suite of three quarters of an hour was extracted from this ballet. Pavlova has written several further symphonies (no. 11 appeared in 2021). Other works include the Thumbelina Ballet Suite (2008/2009), a Concertino for violin, piano and string orchestra (2012), and "Night Music" for violin and strings (2014).

Works

Her music takes as its inspiration the great Russian masters of the 20th century (

Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...

Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major compo ...

Rachmaninov Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of ...

, etc.), and each of her works seem crossed by the topic of uprooting and exile. * "Lullaby for Irene" for piano, violin (or flute) and vibraphone ( 1972) * Two Songs to Verses by

for soprano and piano ( 1974) * "We Are the Love" to verses by Alla Pavlova for (mezzo-)soprano and piano quartet (1974) * "The Dream" to verses by Anna Akhmatova for soprano and piano ( 1979) * Impressions after Fairy-Tales by H. C. Andersen for piano (

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

) * Winter Morning to Verses by

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...

for soprano, cello and flute ( 1993) * Prelude for piano "For My Mother" (

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

) * "Summer Pictures for piano (1994) * Symphony No. 1 "Farewell, Russia" for chamber orchestra (1994) * The Old New York Nostalgia Suite for piano ( 1995) * "Miss Me ... But Let Me Go" for violin, cello, two guitars and mezzo-soprano ( 1997) * "I Loved You", masterpieces of Russian poetry for mezzo-soprano, violin and piano ( 1998) * Elegy for piano and string orchestra (1998) * Symphony No. 2 "For the New Millennium" (1998) * The Old New York Nostalgia Suite for string orchestra, percussion, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone and trumpet (1998) * Symphony No. 3 ( 2000) * Symphony No. 4 ( 2002) * Monolog for violin and string orchestra (2002) * Suite from "Sulamith" ( 2003- 2004) * "Sulamith", ballet (2003- 2005) * Symphony No. 5 (

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

) * Symphony No. 6 ( 2008) * Suite from "Thumbelina" (2008- 2009) * Symphony No. 7 (

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

) * Symphony No. 8 (2011) * Concertino for violin, piano and string orchestra ( 2012) * "Night Music" for violin and strings ( 2014 * Symphony No.9 "Violin Concerto" (2016) * Symphony No.10 (2017) * Symphony No.11 (2021)

Notes

External links

Biography

Naxos - Alla PavlovaMembership of New York Women Composers
* http://www.allapavlova.com

Music

Musical Compositions by Alla Pavlova

Other

where Pavlova studied in Russia. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pavlova, Alla 1952 births Living people 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers American women classical composers American classical composers Russian women classical composers Russian classical composers Soviet composers Soviet emigrants to the United States American people of Ukrainian descent American people of Russian descent Ukrainian classical composers Gnessin State Musical College alumni 21st-century American composers 20th-century American women musicians 20th-century American composers 21st-century American women musicians 20th-century women composers 21st-century women composers