Sofia Gubaidulina
Photo: Remy Franck
Composer Sofia Gubaidulina has died at the age of 93 on 13th March, at her home near Hamburg. Born in 1931 in Christopol, near Kazan. She studied in Kazan and at the Moscow Conservatory and has worked as a freelance composer since 1963. However, her works received little attention in the Soviet Union and were at times banned from being performed – they did not conform to the guidelines of Socialist Realism, which rejected any form of abstraction. Once in the west, she became one of the most performed composers.
Perhaps the most beautiful quote about Sofia Gubaidulina comes from the conductor Simon Rattle: she is like a « flying hermit » because she is always « in orbit and only occasionally visits terra firma. Every now and then she comes to us on earth and brings us light and then goes back to her orbit. »
