site.btaMusic by Dobrinka Tabakova Wins Ivors Academy Award for Best Community and Participation Composition

Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova received the annual Ivors Academy Award for Best Community and Participation Composition for her composition Swarm Fanfares on Tuesday. The piece was commissioned by Halle Concerts Society and performed by The Halle Youth Orchestra, directed by Delyana Lazarova.

On Wednesday, Tabakova posted on her Facebook page: "Heartfelt thanks for this recognition and eternal gratitude to The Halle for the artistic home they gave me over the past season and for commissioning Swarm Fanfares [...]. I could not have asked for a more committed performance and I hope the piece may have inspired budding composers in the orchestra and audience and intrigued others to explore music by living composers".

The statuette weighing just over three kilogrammes and made of bronze depicts Euterpe, the Greek muse of music.

Tabakova has been successful on the world stage with performances of her compositions in Europe, the US, Asia and Australia.

Born in Plovdiv, South Central Bulgaria, Tabakova has lived in London since 1991, graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and obtaining a PhD from King's College London. 

Among Tabakova's prizes are the Jean-Frederic Perrenoud prize and medal at the 4th Vienna International Music Competition; the prize for an anthem for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, performed at St Paul’s Cathedral, the GSMD Lutoslawski Composition Prize 1999 and the 2007 Adam Prize of King’s College London. She was a finalist for the 2010 Gaudeamus prize in Amsterdam and in 2011 was awarded first prize and the Sorel Medallion in Choral Composition, New York. 

Her works have been recorded for the Hyperion and Avie record labels. The album String Paths released in 2013 reached No. 2 in the UK's Specialist Classical charts. It got a Grammy nomination in the Best Classical Compendium category.

Tabakova's cantata Immortal Shakespeare opened the celebrations for the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death in 2016.