COMPOSER

Sofia Gubaidulina

1931 - 2025

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Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina (24 October 1931 – 13 March 2025) was a Soviet and Russian composer of modernist sacred music. She was highly prolific, producing numerous chamber, orchestral and choral works. Her output has been described as exploring the tensions between Western and Eastern music, and has been characterised by "innovative use of microtonality and chromaticism, rhythm over form and use of contrasting tonalities. Her compositions have been praised for their "emotional intensity", while she described her music as bringing legato, that is, a sense of "connected flow into the fragmented staccato of life." Alongside Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt and Edison Denisov, Gubaidulina was considered one of the foremost composers of the former Soviet Union who were disfavoured by the authorities including the KGB, but whose work became frequently commissioned and performed by major international orchestras, with her first major breakthrough being her violin concerto Offertorium (1980). Read more on Wikipedia

Her biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Sofia Gubaidulina is the 140th most popular composer (up from 231st in 2019), the 164th most popular biography from Russia (up from 323rd in 2019) and the 11th most popular Russian Composer.

Sofia Gubaidulina is most famous for her compositions for orchestra, chamber ensemble, piano, and violin. She is one of the most successful female composers of the 20th century.

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Among COMPOSERS

Among composers, Sofia Gubaidulina ranks 140 out of 1,451. Before her are Heitor Villa-Lobos, Daniel Auber, Fanny Mendelssohn, Édouard Lalo, John Field, and Franz von Suppé. After her are Pérotin, Giovanni Paisiello, Nicola Porpora, André Grétry, Johannes Ockeghem, and Gregorio Allegri.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1931, Sofia Gubaidulina ranks 27. Before her are Thomas Bernhard, Monica Vitti, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Martinus J. G. Veltman, Josef Masopust, and Don King. After her are Anatoly Dyatlov, Burton Richter, Annie Girardot, Johannes Rau, Alice Munro, and Leonard Nimoy. Among people deceased in 2025, Sofia Gubaidulina ranks 21. Before her are Khamtai Siphandon, Ágnes Keleti, Horst Köhler, Aga Khan IV, George E. Smith, and George Foreman. After her are Fouad Mebazaa, Frederick Forsyth, Richard Williamson, Dražen Dalipagić, Theodore Edgar McCarrick, and Geneviève Page.

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In Russia

Among people born in Russia, Sofia Gubaidulina ranks 164 out of 3,761. Before her are Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884), Semyon Budyonny (1883), Lyudmila Putina (1958), Patriarch Kirill of Moscow (1946), Genrikh Yagoda (1891), and Ivan Shishkin (1832). After her are Ivan Goncharov (1812), Alexander Kolchak (1874), Felix Steiner (1896), Anatoly Dyatlov (1931), Aleksandr Vasilevsky (1895), and El Lissitzky (1890).

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Among COMPOSERS In Russia

Among composers born in Russia, Sofia Gubaidulina ranks 11. Before her are Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844), Modest Mussorgsky (1839), Alexander Borodin (1833), Alexander Scriabin (1871), Mikhail Glinka (1804), and Mily Balakirev (1837). After her are Dmitry Kabalevsky (1904), Otto Nicolai (1810), Alfred Schnittke (1934), Anton Arensky (1861), Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov (1883), and Irving Berlin (1888).

Russian born Composers

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