Alla Pavlova

Alla Pavlova (Russian: Алла Павлова, born July 13, 1952 in Ukraine) is a Russian composer of Ukrainian origin, best known for her symphonic work. Pavlova currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

During the Soviet era, the Pavlova family was transferred to Moscow in 1961, where Alla studied music in the Gnessin State Musical College. She studied with Armen Shakhbagyan, a composer with a reputation established in the 1970s, and paid special attention to the works of Anna Akhmatova. This influenced a good part of her production until the 1990s.

Following her graduation in 1983, Pavlova moved to the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, where she worked at the Union of Bulgarian Composers and the Bulgarian National Opera. She returned to Moscow three years later.

From 1986, Pavlova worked for the Russian Musical Society Board in Moscow, before relocating to New York City in 1990.

Following her arrival in New York, Pavlova compiled a collection for her daughter Irene consisting of simple pieces for piano inspired by the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen. During the first half of the 1990s her compositions alternated between lieder and small works for piano. In 1994, Pavlov produced her first major work, Symphony nº. 1 Farewell Russia. Symphony nº. 1 seeks to convey the melancholic burden and feelings of pain felt by the composer on leaving her home country. The work is articulated in a single movement, and comprises an ensemble consisting of two violins, a cello, a piano, a flute, and a piccolo, which was recorded in Russia by soloists of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra barely two days after its opening.

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