About

   
 

 
‘… 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
 


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 and was appointed composer in residence with the BBC Concert Orchestra in 2017 and the Halle Orchestra for the 2022/23 season. Her debut profile album String Paths, on ECM Records, was nominated for a Grammy in 2014. Her second album on ECM was released in September 2025.

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 worldwide including: the BBC Proms (UK), Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), Bang on a Can and Grand Teton (USA), The Great Mountains International Music Festival (South Korea), 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. The orchestra released an album of her orchestral music in 2023, which was nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award.

Recent commissions include an Accordion Concerto for Ksenija Sidorova- a Stuttgart Phil, Bodensee Festival, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Latvia SO and Sofia Phil co-commission, and choral works for The Sixteen celebrating William Byrd's 400th anniversary. Forthcoming projects include choral works for the ORA Singers and Three Choirs Festival, chamber and orchestral works as well as a project for the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg.


Dobrinka Tabakova is represented internationally by Schott Music


October 2025

Full biography here

 
 

 

 
 
 

 

 

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