Sofia Gubaidulina

Soviet / Russian composer
Born: 24 October 1931 Chistopol, Tatar Republic, Soviet Union
Died: 13 March 2025 Appen, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Composer of more than a hundred symphonic works, works for soloists, choirs, orchestras and instrumental ensembles, music for theatre, cinema and cartoons.
After instruction in piano and composition at the Kazan Conservatory, she studied composition with Николай Пейко at the Moscow Conservatory, pursuing graduate studies there under Виссарион Шебалин. She lived in Moscow until 1992, then made her primary residence Appen, a village outside Hamburg, Germany after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Her compositional interests were stimulated by the tactile exploration and improvisation with rare Russian, Caucasian, and Asian folk and ritual instruments collected by the "Astreia" ensemble, of which she was a co-founder, by the rapid absorption and personalization of contemporary Western musical techniques (a characteristic, too, of other Soviet composers of the post-Stalin generation including Edison Denisov and Alfred Schnittke), and by a deep-rooted belief in the mystical properties of music. Her uncompromising dedication to a singular vision did not endear her to the Soviet musical establishment, but her music was championed in Russia by a number of devoted performers including Vladimir Tonkha, Friedrich Lips, Mark Pekarsky, and Valeri Popov. The determined advocacy of Gidon Kremer, a dedicatee of Gubaidulina's masterly violin concerto, Offertorium, helped bring the composer to international attention in the early 1980s. Gubaidulina is the author of symphonic and choral works, two cello concerti, a viola concerto, four string quartets, a string trio, works for percussion ensemble, and many works for nonstandard instruments and distinctive combinations of instruments. Her scores frequently explore unconventional techniques of sound production.
In 2011, with the personal patronage and participation of Sofia Gubaidulina in Kazan, the annual festival of contemporary music named after her "Concordia" was founded by the State Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Tatarstan / Государственный Симфонический Оркестр Республики Татарстан, in which famous Russian and foreign composers and performers perform. The artistic director of the festival is Honoured Artist of Russia Alexander Sladkovsky / Александр Сладковский.
Married Sofia Gubaidulina, who was her third husband.