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‘… 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
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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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