Dobrinka Tabakova
Chair of the Jury
Dobrinka Tabakova is a composer of ‘thoughtful and approachable’ music (Gramophone), 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, 成人论坛 Radio 3 and Britten Sinfonia. Her debut profile album ‘String Paths’ (ECM Records) was nominated for a Grammy in 2014.
Creative programmers like violist/conductor Maxim Rysanov, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, violinists Gidon Kremer and Janine Jansen as well as Irish DJ John Kelly, Orchestra of the Swan and Sorel Organization have all championed her music over the past decade. The music of Dobrinka Tabakova features in films (Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Adieu au langage’), dance (Sydney Dance Company ‘Untamed’) and has been heard at international music festivals including Schleswig-Holstein, Moscow Homecoming, Three Choirs, UK and Dark Music Days, Iceland.
Among prizes for her work are the Jean-Frédéric Perrenoud prize and medal at the 4th Vienna International Music Competition; the prize for an anthem for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee and the Sorel Medallion in Choral Composition, New York.
Recent and current projects include ‘Immortal Shakespeare’- a cantata for the Shakespeare 400 anniversary in 2016, bringing together rare J.M.W. Turner sketches of a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon and Shakespeare’s timeless words; also ‘The High Line’ for orchestra inspired by New York’s park in the sky and the UK New Music Biennial film collaboration ‘PULSE’.
Dobrinka Tabakova was born in 1980 in the historic town of Plovidv, Bulgaria and lives in London. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and holds a PhD in composition from King’s College, London.
