Isidora Zebeljan

Isidora Žebeljan (1967, Serbia) attracted the world’s attention with her opera Zora D, which was premièred in Amsterdam, directed by David Pount-ney and Nicola Raab. Since then, she has enjoyed a steady supply of commis-sions from important institutions and festivals: the Venice Biennale, Bregenz Festival, Berlin Philharmonic Foundation, Accademia musicale chigiana (Siena), City of London Festival, University of Kent, Gelsenkirchen Opera, the Nether-lands Chamber Choir, Eduard van Beinum Foundation, etc. She has composed music for top music ensembles: Vienna Symphony Orchestra, The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Berlin Philharmonic Octet, The Brodsky Quartet, and London Brass. Her works are regularly performed all over the world, including festivals such as RAI Nuova musica, WDR-Musikfest, Settembre musica Mila-no-Torino, Settimana musicala senese, ISCM-festivals, Zagreb Music Biennale, KotorArt, etc. Her music has also been performed by Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Turin, Janáček Philharmonic, I Solisti veneti, and by conductors such as Paul Daniel, Claudio Scimone, David Porcelijn, Christoph Poppen, etc. She regularly performs as a conductor and pianist. She has conducted in concerts in London (with The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields) and Amsterdam, and performed as a pianist with The Brodsky Quartet. Exclusive publishing rights to her music are held by Ri-cordi-Universal of Milan. Author CDs with music by Žebeljan have been re-leased by CPO in Germany (in 2011 and 2015), Oboe Classics of London (2013), MASCOM Records, etc. She studied composition at the Faculty of Music in Bel-grade with Vlastimir Trajković. In 2002, she began teaching composition at the same institution, as a professor. In 2006, she was elected to the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and in 2012 to the World Academy of Art and Science.
Works by Žebeljan are published exclusively by Ricordi-Universal of Milan.
In 2011, the German record label cpo released a CD with orchestral music works by Žebeljan and in 2015 another CD, with music for chamber string ensembles, recorded by the Brodsky Quartet, while in 2013 Oboe Classics of London released a CD with her music for wind chamber ensembles. Žebeljan has been very successful in the domain of theatre and film music, winning, among other awards, three Sterija Awards and an award at SOFEST film festival (Sopot, Serbia).
Berlin’s der Freitag magazine named Isidora Žebeljan one of the ten most promising public figures in 2009. In 2014, Žebeljan became the first per-son from the Balkans to receive the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterra-nean’s award for achievements in the arts

The Ghost from the Pumpkin was composed for London Brass, who premièred the piece on 1 March 2006 at the Main Au-ditorium of the Royal College of Music in London. A new version of the piece was premièred in Belgrade on 19 April 2017, as part of the concert series titled Muzički razgovori (Musical Conversations) at the Serbian Acade-my of Sciences and Arts.