Sofia Gubaidulina

Sofia Gubaidulina studied piano and composition at the conservatory of Kazan, and later the conservatory of Moscow. There, she studied under Nikolai Peiko, the assistent of Dmitri Shostakovich.  She is active as a composer since 1963. In 1975, she founded the Astreja, a group with Viktor Suslin and Vyacheslav Artyomov, which focused on improvisation with rare Russian, Caucasian, Central and East Asian traditional music- and percussion instruments.  Thanks to the renowned violist Gidon Kemer, who promotes her work since the 80s, and conductor Reinbert de Leeuw, who presented many of her works, her music is regurlarly performed in the West. Together with Schnittke and Denisov, she is regarded as one of the most important composers of new music from the former Soviet Union. In 1992, she moved to Germany.