Isidora Žebeljan


Isidora Žebeljan is a Serbian composer and conductor. She is a professor of composition at the Belgrade Music Academy and a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts,
Her music is highly acclaimed and she has won many important national awards, among them the Stevan Mokranjać National Music Award in 2004.

Biography

She has attracted international attention with her opera Zora D. which was commissioned by the Genesis Foundation from London. The opera was premiered in Amsterdam in 2003. directed by David Pountney and Nicola Raab. The same production opened the 50th season of the Vienna Chamber Opera in 2003.
Isidora Žebeljan got commissions from important institutions and festivals such as the Venice Biennale, Bregenz Festival, Genesis Foundation from London, University of Kent, Muziektheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen, International Horn Society, Accademia Musicale Chigiana Sienna, City of London Festival etc. She composed works for excellent musical ensembles such as Wiener Symphoniker, The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Brodsky Quartet, Berlin Philharmonic Octet, Dutch Chamber Choir and London Brass. Her compositions were regularly performed in whole Europe, Israel, USA and Asia including the festivals Venice Biennale, Bregenz Festival, Festival RAI Nuova Musica, City of London Festival, ISCM Festivals, Festival Classique The Hague, Galway Arts Festival, Tallinn Summer Music Festival, WDR-Musikfest, Settembre musica Milano-Torino, Ultima Festival, City of London Festival, Swaledale Festival, Walled City Music Festival, Dulwich Music Festival, Eilat Festival, Festival Nous Sons, Festival L' Est, Crossing Border Festival, Settimana Musicale Senese, Musical Biennale Zagreb, BEMUS, etc. Among the ensembles and musicians who performed music of Isidora Žebeljan are Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of RAI Torino, Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, I Solisti Veneti, Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, No Borders Orchestra, Lutosławski Quartet, Nieuw Ensemble, Zagros Ensemble, ansambl Sentieri selvaggi, conductors Paul Daniel, Claudio Scimone, David Porcelijn, Christoph Poppen, Pierre-André Valade, pianists Kyoko Hashimoto and Aleksandar Madžar, hornist Stefan Dohr, clarinetists Joan Enric Lluna and Alessandro Carbonare, violinist Daniel Rowland and others. The exclusive publisher of her music is Ricordi-Universal.
CD label CPO from Germany released in 2012 a CD with her orchestral music, performing by Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, Žebeljan Orchestra and conductor David Porcelijn. The same CD label released in 2015 a CD with her chamber music for strings, played by Brodsky Quartet. In 2013 CD label Oboe Classics from London released a CD 'Balkan Bolero' with her chamber music for winds. The other CD's with music of Isidora Žebeljan were released by the CD labels Deutsche Grammophon, Chandos Records, Mascom Records, Acousense, etc.
Isidora Žebeljan studied Composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade with Vlastimir Trajković. She has been Professor of Composition at the same Faculty since 2002. Her work as a composer has earned her several significant awards in her country, including the Mokranjac Award in 2004. She is the winner of the New York Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship for 2005. In 2006 she was elected to the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and in 2012 she was elected to the World Academy of Arts and Sciences. She got in 2014 a Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean Award for her achievement in art.
Isidora Žebeljan is also one of the most prominent Serbian contemporary composers of theatre and film music. So far she has composed music for more than thirty theatre productions in all significant theatres in Serbia, Norwegen, Croatia and Montenegro. For her work in the field of theatre music she was awarded the Sterija Award three times. She was also awarded the Yustat Biennial of Stage Design Award for best theatre music four times. In addition, Isidora Žebeljan worked on a number of film scores, including the orchestration of Goran Bregović's music for the films Time of the Gypsies, Arizona Dream and Underground, La Reine Margot and The Serpent's Kiss. She composed the music for Miloš Radivojević's film How I was Stolen by the Germans. For this score she was awarded the Prize of the Film Festival in Sopot in 2011 and the FIPRESCI Prize of the Serbian Film Associoationin 2012.
Isidora Žebeljan also regularly appears as a performer of her own works and of the works by other, mainly Serbian composers. She conducted concerts in London and in Amsterdam, and performed as a pianist with Brodsky Quartet.
In 2017, Isidora Žebeljan signed the Declaration on the Common Language of the Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks and Montenegrins.

Reception

Describing Žebeljan's music, David Pountney wrote:

Music

Compositions

2013 - 2017

bass, 2003/13.
CD No. 2