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Photo credit: Laurel Fay
Sofia Gubaidulina after receiving her honorary doctorate from Yale University.
Gubaidulina's Yale Doctorate
On May 25, Sofia Gubaidulina joined the ranks of the elite few to have received honorary doctorates from Yale University.
Noting her music's "mystical qualities and exploration of sound," the citation continues, expressing the depth of her compositions and their "unique impact on contemporary music."
The citation concludes: "You persevered through decades of state-imposed censorship, writing music that received no public hearing. When your art was finally allowed its full expression, the world embraced your talent...To your well-earned international recognition as a leading contemporary composer, we are pleased to add our own tribute with this degree of Doctor of Music."
Gubaidulina was in the US not only to receive her honors, but to attend a May 21 performance at the Smithsonian Museum's Freer and Sackler Galleries by the Moscow String Quartet of her String Trio and String Quartet No. 4. This performance is part of an exhibit at the Smithsonian called The Tsars and the East.
On July 28, Gubaidulina's new 26 minute work, Fachwerk for bayan (button accordian), strings and percussion premieres in Trondheim (Norway), with Geir Draugsvoll (bayan), Anders Loguin (percussion), and the Trondheim Soloists. Based on the German architectural style of the same name, similarities can be found between the architecture and the physical properties of the bayan. Gubaidulina structures her newest work to highlight these similarities.
Click here to listen Gubaidulina discuss these fascinating characteristics.
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