The renowned Soviet-Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina has died aged 93.

Born in Chistopol in the Tatar Soviet Republic in 1931, Sofia Gubaidulina studied piano at the Music Academy in Kazan after the war. In 1949 she entered the Kazan Conservatory where she studied composition, latterly with Vissarion Shebalin, a pupil of Myaskovsky, and subsequently received encouragement from Dmitry Shostakovich, who advised her to ignore hostile criticism from the official musical establishment. She went on to embrace more experimental forms of music, leading to the use of serial techniques and electronic devices. She earned a living in Russia principally by writing film music, while her other works were more widely heard abroad. When political changes in the Soviet Union enabled her to travel outside the country, she moved to a small town near Hamburg in 1992, where she remained until her death on 13 March 2025.

One of Gubaidulina’s notable merits is the fact that at the end of the 1970s she discovered her passion for the sound characteristics and modes of expression of the bayan. This button accordion was popular in Russia as a folk-music instrument, and Gubaidulina made it a widely acceptable instrument for contemporary music by including it in a number of inspired compositions.

Her varied output, comprising some one hundred works, is shot through with threads of spirituality and mysticism, something which sat uncomfortably with Soviet expectations. When she presented the finished score of Rejoice for violin and cello to the intended performers in 1981, they first felt unable to premiere the work because the religious references were unmistakable. It wasn’t until July 1988, at Finland’s Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, that the work received its first performance.

Composed in 2017, Gubaidulina’s Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Bayan was recorded the following year for the Orfeo label by Baiba Skride (violin), Harriet Krijgh (cello), Elsbeth Moser (bayan) and the NDR Radiophilharmonie under conductor Andrew Manze. On hearing of the composer’s passing, Harriet Krijgh was moved to respond:

“Rest well dear Sofia Gubaidulina … Deep and distinctive music with so much inner meaning! It was an unforgettable great honour and experience to premiere your Triple Concerto and especially to get to know you personally and to work on the work in such detail.”

Sofia Gubaidulina Biography & Discography