Isidora Žebeljan (1967, Serbia) attracted the world’s attention with her opera Zora D, which was premièred in Amsterdam, directed by David Pountney and Nicola Raab. Since then, she has enjoyed a steady supply of commissions 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 Netherlands 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 Milano-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 Ricordi-Universal of Milan. Author CDs with music by Žebeljan have been released 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 Belgrade 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 person from the Balkans to receive the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean’s award for achievements in the arts.

Zujte strune… (Hum Away, Strings…), a symphonic orchestra metamorphosis of themes from Mozart’s Magic Flute, commissioned by the Bregenz Festival (Austria) for the gala opening of the 2013 festival. It was premièred by the Wiener Symphoniker, conducted by Paul Daniel.