Isidora Zebeljan (Belgrade, 1967) is a Serbian composer, pianist and conductor.

Biography

edit

ISIDORA ZEBELJAN drew international attention with her opera Zora D. which was commissioned by the Genesis Foundation from London. It was premiered in Amsterdam in 2003, directed by David Pountney and Nicola Raab. The same production opened the 50th season of the Vienna Chamber Opera in the same year. Describing Isidora Zebeljan's music, David Pountney wrote:”When I was trawling through the entries for the Genesis Opera Prizes 1, amidst an absolute welter of indistinguishable representatives of what one might call "academic modernism", Isidora Žebeljan's music struck me immediately as something original, fresh, and above all emotionally expressive - a rare commodity, but an essential one for interesting theatrical story telling.”(From the booklet for the opening of the 50th season of the Vienna Chamber Opera). After the success of the opera Zora D. (which had 22 performances in five European countries in just four years), Isidora Zebeljan wrote The Song of a Traveller in the Night, for clarinet and string quartet as a commission of the Genesis Foundation for the opening of Bill Viola’s exhibition The Passions at the National Gallery in London in 2003 (performed by the members of The Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields). From the Venice Biennale she received a commission in 2004 and wrote The Horses of Saint Mark, an illumination for orchestra, premiered in Venice in the same year. The Genesis Foundation also commissioned her to write the chamber orchestra composition The Minstrel’s Dance, which Isidora Zebeljan composed for The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and this music was premiered at the Wigmore Hall in London in 2005, and it was conducted by the composer herself. As a commission of the London Brass she wrote The Ghost from the Pumpkin, which was premiered in London in 2006. Than followed the commissions from the Bregenz Festival, for the opera The Marathon, which was performed during this festival in 2008, as well in Vienna and Belgrade, and the one from The International Horn Players Society, for composition for horn and string orchestra, Dance of Wooden Sticks. Commissioned by Dutch Chamber Choir, Isidora Zebeljan wrote in 2008 the composition Latum lalo, for 12 singers. As a commission from University of Kent she wrote Polomka quartet for Brodsky Quartet, which was premiered at Gulbenkian Theatre of University of Kent, Canterbury in 2009. The most recent commission for 2009 was the one from Musiktheater im Revier (Gelsenkirchen, Germany) for a new opera, titled as Simon, the Chosen. The world premiere of this opera was in June 2009. The artistic commitee of ISCM World New Music Days selected her composition The Horses of Saint Mark in the official programme for 2009. Her composition Il Circo was the obligatory piece for the international piano competition Jeunesses Musicales in Belgrade in 2009. John Manger, Managing Director of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields orchestra at that time, said that Isidora Zebeljan has “a genuinely original voice and truly impressive talent. The musicians of the Academy who have worked with her cannot praise her highly enough. Her professionalism and craft are amazing, and her original talent is of the first order.” Her compositions were performed in the UK, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Serbia and the United States as well as at music festivals like the Venice Biennale, Bregenzer Festspiele, the Festival RAI Nuova Musica (Torino), Settembre musica (Milano), WDR Music Festival, the Galway Arts Festival, Festival Nous Sons (Barcelona), Festival L' Est (Milano), Festival Classique and Crossing Border Festival (Netherlands), Music Biennale Zagreb and Belgrade Music Festival. Among the ensembles and artists who have performed music by Isidora Zebeljan are the Symphony Orchestra of RAI Torino, The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Neue Filharmonie Westfalen, Brodsky Quartet, London Brass, Nieuw Ensemble, Zagros Ensemble, Ensemble Sentieri selvaggi, the conductors Christoph Poppen, Lorrain Vaillancourt, David Porcelijn, the pianists Kyoko Hashimoto and Aleksandar Madzar, the clarinetist Joan Enric Lluna, etc. The exclusive publisher of her music is Ricordi - Universal. Isidora Zebeljan studied composition at the Belgrade Music Academy with Vlastimir Trajković(a student of Olivier Messiaen) and since 2002 she has held the position of Professor of Composition at the Belgrade Music Academy. She has been highly acclaimed for her music and has won several significant national awards, among them the "Stevan Mokranjac" National Music Award in 2004. In 2006, she was elected a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Isidora Zebeljan was granted by the Civitella Ranieri Foundation fellowship for 2005. Isidora Zebeljan is also one of the most outstanding Serbian contemporary authors of music for theatre and film. So far, she has composed the music for around 40 theatre productions in all the prominent theatres in Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro. To acknowledge her artistic achievements, Ms Žebeljan has been honored three times with the ''Sterija'' Award, the most prestigious Serbian annual prize for theatre. The Yustat Biennale of Theatre Design also awarded her four times as best composer of theatre music. She has worked on several film scores, including the orchestration of Goran Bregovic's music from The Time of the Gypsies, Arizona Dream, Underground (all directed by E. Kusturica), Queen Margot (directed by P. Chéreau) and The Serpent’s Kiss (directed by P. Rousselot).

Works

edit

Hero’s Miseries, for mixed choir, 1985 Suite for Piano, 1985 Songs Cycle to the Verses of Miloš Crnjanski, for baritone and piano, 1986 Sonata for Violin and Piano, 1986 Glory, for 42 female vocals, 1987 Deserted Village, Elegy for string orchestra, 1987 Umbra, for piano, 1987 Pep It Up, Fantasy for soprano, piano, percussion and string quintet, 1988 A Song for Baron Münchausen, for multiplayer, 1989 A Yawl on the Danube, Scene for soprano, piano, percussion and string quartet, 1990 Escenas picaras - sinfonia in tre movimenti, for symphony orchestra, 1990/2 Il circo, sketch for piano, 1993 Choral, for three voices and double bass, 1994 Girotondo, for alto saxophone, piano, double bass and darbucca, 1994 Three Pieces, for Guitar Solo, 1998 Four Old Serbian Songs, for soprano and string orchestra 1999 Rukoveti, five songs for soprano and orchestra (or piano), 1998/2000 Sarabande, for flute, soprano and piano, 2001 Sarabande, for English horn, violin and piano, 2002 Three Goat’s Ears, suite for oboe, violin and piano, 2002 The Miracle in Shargan, Song for oboe solo, 2002 Girotondo, for oboe, piano, double bass and percussion, 2003 Zora D, opera in one act, 2003 Song of a Traveller in the Night, for clarinet and string quartet, 2003 The Miracle in Shargan, Duet for oboe and violin, 2003 The Horses of Saint Mark, Illumination for Orchestra, 2004 The Minstrel’s Dance, for chamber orchestra, 2005 The Ghost from the Pumpkin, for brass quintet, 2006 The New Songs of Lada, for soprano and string orchestra, 2006 Dark Velvet, for piano, 2006 Sarabande, for alt flute, viola and harp, 2007 The Miracle in Shargan, for oboe and piano, 2007 The Marathon (Eine Marathon Familie), opera in one act, 2007/8 Dance of Wooden Sticks, for horn and string orchestra, 2008 Latum lalo, for mixed choir (12 voices), 2008 Polomka Quartet, for string quartet, 2009 Simon, the Chosen (Simon, der Erwählte), opera in one act, 2009


References

edit
edit

[1]