Dobrinka Tabakova, the Bulgarian composer nominated for a Grammy Award, was born in Plovdiv. As a child she got addicted to the vinyl records that her grandpa and dad collected in dozens. Inspired by them, she started improvising on the piano at age 7. In 1991, as her family moved to London, she enrolled for study at the Royal Academy of Music. There she was trained in harmony, morphology and conducting.

Dobrinka gladly recalls the Academy’s red-brick buildings with an impressive lobby and the Duke’s Hall, a concert hall where she has played music and has sung as well. Her favorite spot in London is the City safely away from tourist attractions and typically silent on weekends.

Young musicians travel widely, and Dobrinka makes no exception. For her travel is a great way to rediscover the beauty of the wide world and also to find out that people are very much the same everywhere and their dreams and hopes are pretty similar. So they can easily communicate, especially via the universal language of music.

When it comes to travel, Tabakova is strongly attached to her native Plovdiv where she has marveled at the fireflies in Tsar Simeon Park, and has watched Aida and Carmina Burana presented on stage the Roman amphitheater in the city. Her way to keep in touch with Bulgaria while abroad is Bulgarian music and also, Bulgarian food. In London she often serves to her friends traditional Bulgarian cheesecake and stuffed cabbage leaves.

Dobrinka Tabakova contends that there is no specific male or female manner of composing. Gentleness and the power of the spirit are invariably present in a worthy work of music. The worth of a composer stems from his character and personality.

At age 14, Dobrinka Tabakova received the Jean-Frédéric Perrenoud prize and medal at the 4th Vienna International Music Competition. She is holder of other prestigious distinctions: the1999 Lutoslawski Composition Prize from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she has studied, the 2007 Adam Prize of King’s College London,where she defended her doctoral thesis in conducting, and the 2011 Sorel Medallion in Choral Composition.

In 2002 Dobrinka Tabakova was awarded the prize for an anthem for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, performed at St Paul’s Cathedral, and in 2008 her work on lyrics by Bulgarian poetess Blaga Dimitrova was selected for the Riga Youth Choir Kamer’s project of World Sun Songs. In 2010 works by the Bulgarian composer were included in the Salzburg Mozart Weeks and in the Vienna Musikverein Winter Concerts. Her works have been presented in USA, UK, Russia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Australia, Bulgaria and other countries. They have become part of the repertoires of renowned performers including Maxim Rysanov, Gidon Kremer, Christine Blaumane and Natalie Clein.

In May 2013 ECM Records released the first full album featuring her music exclusively. The CD String Paths climbed to No. 2 in the UK's classical music charts. In December 2013 String Paths was nominated in the Classical Compendium category of the 56th GrammyAwards

„Manfred Eicher, producer at the renowned company ЕСМ, listened to some of my works and he liked them. Together we compiled a program big enough for a full CD. We recorded part of the works in Lithuania, with the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra and another part in Berlin with two close friends of mine, Maxim Rysanov and Christine Blaumane. This CD was released in May 2013 and it got quite positive reviews from the very start. The feeling that comes from reading words of praise and admiration by colleagues is very strong. I took it very emotionally when I realized I had been nominated for such a prestigious award along with a composer of such a scale as Hindemith! The best thing of all was that I learned about the nomination a day before I had to arrive to Bulgaria for recordings at the Bulgarian National Radio with the string orchestra of Maestro Emil Tabakov. I arrived here with that news, and the experience was really great!”

There are hardly any long breaks the lives of professional musicians and they often draw up long-term plans. Dobrinka Tabakova has been increasingly addressed for various prestigious projects. She has just completed a choral work for the occasion of the 750^th anniversary of Merton College in Oxford and begins composing a work for the 100^th birth anniversary of Bulgarian writer and broadcaster Petar Uvaliev. In 2016 she has to be ready with a cantata for the celebrations of the 600^th birth anniversary of William Shakespeare in his town of birth. We are all looking forward to listening to these works!

English Daniela Konstantinova

The audio to this feature comprises the following fragments from works by Dobrinka Tabakova:

1.  Concert for Cello and Strings, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra conducted by Maxim Rysanov

2.  Insight, Asch Trio