Isidora Žebeljan
Isidora Žebeljan (27 September 1967 – 29 September 2020) was a Serbian composer and conductor. She was a professor of composition at the Belgrade Music Academy and a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. She won many national awards for her music, among them the Stevan Mokranjac National Music Award in 2004. Biography. Isidora Žebeljan studied Composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade with Vlastimir Trajković (a student of Olivier Messiaen). She was Professor of Composition at the same Faculty from 2002. Her work as a composer earned her several significant awards in her country , including the Mokranjac Award in 2004. She won the New York Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship for 2005. In 2006 she was elected to the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (becoming a full member in 2012) and in 2012 she was elected to the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS). In 2014 she received a Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean Award for her achievement in art. She 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: She composed works for musical ensembles of high standing, such as the Wiener Symphoniker, The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Brodsky Quartet, Berlin Philharmonic Octet, Dutch Chamber Choir and London Brass. Her compositions were regularly performed throughout Europe, Israel, USA and Asia including the Venice Biennale, Bregenz Festival, Festival RAI Nuova Musica, City of London Festival, ISCM Festivals (Gothenburg, Wrocław), Festival Classique The Hague, Galway Arts Festival, Tallinn Summer Music Festival, WDR -Musikfest, Settembre musica Milano-Torino, Ultima Festival (Oslo), Swaledale Festival, Walled City Music Festival, Dulwich Music Festival (UK), Eilat Festival (Jerusalem), Festival Nous Sons (Barcelona), Festival L' Est (Milano), Crossing Border Festival (The Netherlands), Settimana Musicale Senese, Musical Biennale Zagreb, BEMUS (Belgrade), etc. Among the ensembles and musicians who performed music of Isidora Žebeljan are the 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 (Amsterdam), Zagros Ensemble (Helsinki), ensemble Sentieri Selvaggi (Milan), 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. Isidora Žebeljan was also one of the most prominent Serbian contemporary composers of theatre and film music. She has composed music for more than thirty theatre productions in all significant theatres in Serbia, Norway, 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" (directed by Emir Kusturica), "La Reine Margot" (directed by Patrice Chéreau) and "The Serpent's Kiss" (directed by Philippe Rousselot). 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 (Serbia) and the FIPRESCI Prize of the Serbian Film Association in 2012. Isidora Žebeljan also regularly appeared as a performer (conductor and  pianist) of her own works and of the works by other, mainly Serbian composers. She conducted concerts in London (with The Academy of St Martin in the Fields) and in Amsterdam (Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ), and performed as a pianist with the Brodsky Quartet. In 2017, Isidora Žebeljan signed the Declaration on the Common Language of the Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks and Montenegrins. She died on 29 September 2020 in Belgrade, Serbia. Recordings. In 2012, the CD label Classic Produktion Osnabrück (CPO) from Germany released a CD with her orchestral music, performed by the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, Žebeljan Orchestra and conductor  David Porcelijn (CPO 7776702). In 2015 the same CD label released a CD with her chamber music for strings, played by the Brodsky Quartet (CPO 777994-2). In 2013 the CD label Oboe Classics from London released a CD "Balkan Bolero" with her chamber music for winds (11 compositions). Other CD's with music of Isidora Žebeljan were released by the CD labels Deutsche Grammophon ("The Horses of Saint Mark" by No Borders Orchestra), Chandos Records (UK), Mascom Records (Serbia), Acousense (Germany), etc. Reception. Describing Žebeljan's music, David Pountney wrote: Music. The exclusive publisher of her music is Ricordi -Universal.