Alla Pavlova

Alla Yevgenyevna Pavlova(born July 13, 1952, in Ukraine) is a Russiancomposer. Pavlova was born and initially raised inVinnitsa,Ukraine. She and her family moved to Moscow in 1961, and she then moved toBrooklyn,New Yorkin 1990, where she has settled.  She is best known for her symphonic work.
During theSovietera, the Pavlova family was transferred toMoscowin 1961.  There Alla received her Bachelor’s Degree in 1975 from the Ippolitov–Ivanov Music Institute, and in 1983 her Master’s Degree from theGnessin State Musical College. She studied withArmen Shakhbagyan, a composer with a reputation established in the 1970s, and paid special attention to the works ofAnna Akhmatova. This influenced a good part of her output until the 1990s.
Following the achievement of her Master's in 1983, Pavlova moved to theBulgariancapital ofSofia, where she worked at the Union of Bulgarian Composers and theBulgarian National Opera. She returned to Moscow three years later.
From 1986, Pavlova worked for the Russian Musical Society Board in Moscow, before relocating in 1990 toNew York City.
Following her arrival in New York, Pavlova compiled a collection for her daughter Irene consisting of simple pieces for piano inspired by the fairy tales ofHans Christian Andersen. During the first half of the 1990s her compositions alternated betweenliederand small works forpiano. In 1994, Pavlova produced her first major work, for a small chamber orchestra,Symphony no. 1 "Farewell Russia". The symphony seeks to convey the melancholic burden and feelings of pain the composer felt on leaving her home country. The work is articulated in a single movement, and is scored for a smallensembleconsisting of twoviolins, acello, a piano, aflute, and apiccolo,.It was recorded in Russia by soloists of theMoscow Philharmonic Orchestratwo days after its first performance.
Pavlova waited for four years to compose her next work for larger forces, anElegy(1998) for piano and string orchestra, barely four minutes long, motivated by the death of her teacher Shakhbagyan.
Her first symphonic work following the Elegy was theSymphony no. 2 "For the New Millennium"(1998), written that same year, her most ambitious work to date. Even before being revised four years later, it was brought to CD byVladimir Fedoseyev.Pavlova returned to the composition of lieder, composing pieces likeMiss me... but let me goat the beginning of September 2001. In the same way thatCristóbal Halfftersaw his compositionAdagio en forma de Rondóchanged by the terrorist attacks ofSeptember 11, Pavlova - who had been shocked by these attacks, and who lived quite close toground zero- decided to rededicate the song to the memory of the victims.
Pavlova is a member of theNew York Women Composers, Inc.
Besides supporting her prestige, the Second Symphony marks an important point in Pavlova's career, as she moved away from chamber music in successive works in favor of large orchestral compositions. In 2000, she sealed this change of orientation with the monumental Symphony no. 3 which was inspired by a New York monument toJoan of Arcand is characterized by its intense expressive reach. Consistent with her habit of revising her works, Pavlova continued to work on this piece, adding aguitarin a new version which was premiered in 2004.
HerSymphony no. 4was written in 2002, as well as a second concert work, a monologue with solo violin in which she again used a string orchestra. From 2003-2005 Pavlova worked on her first incidental music, for theballetSulamith, to stage the 1908 story byAleksandr Kuprininspired by the Biblical story of King Solomon.  A symphonic suite of three quarters of an hour was extracted from this ballet.
Pavlova has written several further symphonies (no. 11 appeared in 2021).  Other works include the Thumbelina Ballet Suite (2008/2009), a Concertino for violin, piano and string orchestra (2012), and "Night Music" for violin and strings (2014).
Her music takes as its inspiration the great Russian masters of the 20th century (Prokofiev,Shostakovich,Rachmaninov, etc.), and each of her works seem crossed by the topic of uprooting and exile.