Sofia Gubaidulina

About Sofia Gubaidulina

Sofia Gubaidulina was born in Chirstopol, Tatar, in the USSR on 24 October 1931, and is one of the most important Russian composers of our time.
She studied with N. Peiko, a pupil of Shostakovich, at the Moscow Conservatory, and subsequently with Shebalin on the postgraduate course. She lives in Moscow and, together with Schnittke, Denisov and Silvestrov, she is now regarded worldwide as one of the leading representatives of New Music. She visited Japan in 1989 and 1990, where her compositions are highly regarded. She has written many film scores, as well as the better known works such as "Offertorium" Concerto for violin and "Seen Words" for violoncello, bayan and strings, etc. It is evident from these titles that religion is an important aspect of her serious musical work; however, it is interesting that this manifests itself in a different way from composers such as Messiaen or Pärt.

Orchestral works by Gubaidulina are represented by Boosey & Hawkes in the UK, British Commonwealth (excluding Canada) and the Republic of Ireland.