The composer's profound Russian Orthodox faith has contributed a visionary intensity to her work.
Find out more about the woman behind the music with this timeline.
1931
Born to a Slavic mother and Tatar father in Chistopol (Tatar Republic), on the Kama River close to the River Volga.
1949
After lessons in piano and theory at the Kazan Music Academy, enrols at the Kazan Conservatory, studying with Leopold Lukomsky, Grigory Kogan (piano) and Albert Leman (composition).
1954
Graduates from the Conservatory and moves to Moscow, taking undergraduate studies with Nikolay Peyko (Shostakovich’s teaching assistant) and postgraduate studies with Vissarion Shebalin.
1963
Completes studies with Shebalin and undertakes the first of many film scores, which sustain her financially into the 1980s.
1963-7
Works as accompanist to the Moscow Theatre Institute (1963–4), and works as composer at Moscow’s Taganka Theatre (1966) and for the Studio of Documentary Films (1963–7).
1969-70
Works at the Moscow Experimental Studio for Electronic Music, and at the Moscow Soviet Theatre.
1975
After winning the International Composition Competition in Rome, Gubaidulina founds the Astreya ensemble together with Viktor Suslin and Vyacheslav Artyomov, which specialises in improvisation on rare and ethnic instruments: Russian, Caucasian, Central and East Asian.
1980
Offertorium (revised 1982, 1986), based on a theme from Bach’s Musical Offering, is written for Gidon Kremer, who later performs it across the world, introducing Gubaidulina’s music to the West.
1986
First visit to the West, at the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival. Stimmen … Verstummen … causes a stir at the Berlin Festival, the ninth of its 12 movements being a ‘solo for the conductor’
1992
Moves to a small village outside Hamburg, ‘I always wished to have a quiet life. I need silence to be able to work and I have it here as never before.’ Wins the Russian State Prize.
2002
Polar Music Prize; Great Distinguished Service Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
2004
Elected a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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