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‘… extremely original and rare music…’
John Adams, composer
‘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, www.tokafi.com
Dobrinka Tabakova is an award-winning young
British/Bulgarian composer who lives and works in
London. Idiosyncratic rhythms, memorable melodies,
post-tonal/modal harmonies and distinct
orchestration all form her musical language. She
graduated from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama
(BMus & MMus) and King’s College London (PhD,
composition) and now regularly works with many of
today’s leading musicians including Maxim Rysanov,
Janine Jansen, Gidon Kremer, Julian Rachlin, Nick
Daniel and others, and orchestras such as Academy of
St. Martin in the Fields, Kremerata Baltica,
Kammerorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Amstedam
Sinfonietta, Orchestra of the Swan, Lithuanian
Chamber Orchestra and BBC NOW. |
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Aged 14, Dobrinka
received the Jean-Frederic Perrenoud Prize and Medal
at the 4th Vienna International Music Competition.
Other prizes followed, including the GSMD
Lutoslawski Composition Prize, the prize for an
anthem for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002
(performed at St. Paul’s Cathedral) and the 2007
Adam Prize of King’s College London for the song
cycle Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music.
She was a finalist for the 2010 Gaudeamus
prize in Amsterdam with her string septet Such
different paths and recently was first prize
winner at the 2011 Sorel Medallion in Choral
Composition, New York.
Dobrinka’s works are
widely performed and for over ten years she has
given presentations about her work, often with
particular reference to modality, history of music
and the place of music and performance in our
society. She has been composer-in-residence at the
Leicester International Festival of Music;
International Chamber Music Festival, Utrecht, Gidon
Kremer and Kremerata Baltica Festival in Sigulda,
Latvia and guest composer at the Lockenhaus
Festival, Austria and Julian Rachlin & Friends
festival, Dubrovnik. Dobrinka has also been invited
as featured composer at the Spectrum Concerts,
Berlin 20th anniversary concert and the 2010
Musicarama Festival in Hong Kong.
Recent projects have
included the large scale commission of On the
South Downs performed by cellist Natalie Clein
with West Sussex Youth Orchestra and Choirs; the
premiere of her Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
performed by Evelyn Chang and City Chamber Orchestra
of Hong Kong and a tour around Europe of Such
different paths with Janine Jansen and the
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. The Academy,
lead by Julian Rachlin also toured Dobrinka’s
Schubert Arpeggione Sonata arrangement for viola and
strings around the USA.
As well as her
affinity for chamber music, choral and string music
feature prominently in Dobrinka’s output. During
2008 she was one of 17 composers (including John
Tavener, Giya Kancheli and Petris Vasks) invited to
write a Sun Anthem for the large project of World’s
Sun Songs, directed by Maris Sirmais with Riga Youth
Choir Kamer, presented at the World Choral Symposium
in Copenhagen. Later the work was performed at the
American Choral Directors Association National
Convention. Writing for strings is another major
medium and her Concerto for Cello and Strings,
commissioned by the Amsterdam Cello Bienalle for
Kristine Blaumane and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, was
premiered in 2008 at Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw. In
the last year her Sun Triptych for solo
violin, cello and string orchestra has also received
numerous performances, including the Salzburg Mozart
Week with Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica and
London Festival of Bulgarian Culture with Kristine
Blaumane and Sofia Soloists.
One of the champions
of Dobrinka’s music has been the violist Maxim
Rysanov, to whom she has dedicated a concerto and
three Suites. Maxim has performed the solo suite
Pirin and the Suite in Old Style for
viola, strings and harpsichord around Europe and
premiered the viola and piano BBC/RPS commission
Suite in Jazz Style in 2009, followed by
performances at festivals in the UK and Europe. He
recorded Dobrinka’s Schubert Arpeggione arrangement
for the BIS label with the Swedish Chamber
Orchestra, which is due for release in 2011.
Dobrinka’s works
feature on a number of record labels- the anthem
Praise on Hyperion (‘startlingly original-
immediately appealing’, BBC Music Magazine) and
Nocturne, Modetudes (2009) and
Whispered Lullaby on the Avie label (Gramophone
and BBC Music magazines Editor’s Choice June/August
2007). As well as worldwide broadcasts on European,
Asian and North American radio stations she receives
regular broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, including two
special recordings with the BBC National Orchestra
of Wales. In 2005 the Bulgarian National Radio
presented her Concerto for Viola and Strings at the
International Rostrum of Composers in Vienna.
Dobrinka has received commissions from the Royal
Philharmonic Society; BBC Radio 3; Spectrum
Concerts, Berlin; Amsterdam Cello Bienalle,
Orchestra of the Swan; International Chamber Music
Festival, Utrecht; Moscow Homecoming Festival;
Ricciotti Ensemble; Leicester Festival; Amsterdam
Sinfonietta as well as two chamber operas-
Midsummer Magic for the Guildhall School of
Music, and The Custard Tart Opera performed
at the international ‘Profile Intermedia’ design
conference in Bremen.
Born in Plovdiv,
Bulgaria in 1980, Dobrinka moved to London in 1991,
where she studied at Alleyn’s School and the Royal
Academy of Music Junior Department, specialising in
composition, piano and conducting. She graduated
with distinction BMus and MMus in composition at the
Guildhall School of Music & Drama (GSMD) and was
then appointed composition fellow there. In 2007 she
was awarded a doctorate in composition from King’s
College London (KCL). Her composition teachers have
included Simon Bainbridge, Diana Burrell, Robert
Keeley and Andrew Schultz as well as masterclasses
with John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Alexander Goehr,
Marek Kopelent, Philip Manoury, Alessandro Solbiati,
Olav Anton Thommessen and Iannis Xenakis.
Please check the Concerts page for forthcoming performances. |
