Isidora Žebeljan

Isidora Žebeljan (Serbian pronunciation: [isidɔ̝̌ːra ʒɛ̝bɛ̝̌ʎaːn]; born 1967) is a Serbian composer, pianist and conductor.

Žebeljan was born in Belgrade, Serbia, and drew international attention with her opera Zora D. which was commissioned by the Genesis Foundation from London. It was premièred in Amsterdam in 2003, directed by David Pountney and Nicola Raab. The same production opened the 50th season of the Vienna Chamber Opera in the same year.

After the success of the opera Zora D., which had 22 performances in five European countries in just four years, Zebeljan composed The Song of a Traveller in the Night, for clarinet and string quartet as a commission of the Genesis Foundation for the opening of Bill Viola's exhibition The Passions at the National Gallery in London in 2003 (performed by the members of The Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields). From the Venice Biennale she received a commission in 2004 and wrote The Horses of Saint Mark, an illumination for orchestra, premièred in Venice in the same year. The Genesis Foundation also commissioned her to write the chamber orchestra composition The Minstrel's Dance, which Zebeljan composed for The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and this music was premiered at the Wigmore Hall in London in 2005, and it was conducted by the composer herself. As a commission of the London Brass she wrote The Ghost from the Pumpkin, which was premièred in London in 2006. Than followed the commissions from the Bregenz Festival, for the opera The Marathon, which was performed during this festival in 2008, as well in Vienna and Belgrade, and the one from The International Horn Players Society, for composition for horn and string orchestra, Dance of Wooden Sticks. Commissioned by Dutch Chamber Choir, Isidora Zebeljan wrote in 2008 the composition Latum lalo, for 12 singers. As a commission from University of Kent she wrote Polomka quartet for Brodsky Quartet, which was premiered at Gulbenkian Theatre of University of Kent, Canterbury in 2009. The most recent commission for 2009 was the one from Musiktheater im Revier (Gelsenkirchen, Germany) for a new opera, titled as Simon, the Chosen. The world première of this opera was in June 2009. The artistic committee of ISCM World New Music Days selected her composition The Horses of Saint Mark in the official programme for 2009. Her composition Il Circo was the obligatory piece for the international piano competition Jeunesses Musicales in Belgrade in 2009. John Manger, Managing Director of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields orchestra at that time, said that Isidora Zebeljan has “a genuinely original voice and truly impressive talent. The musicians of the Academy who have worked with her cannot praise her highly enough. Her professionalism and craft are amazing, and her original talent is of the first order”.

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