Galina Grigorjeva
/ composer in residence
Galina Grigoreva's work is remarkable for its soulful and subtle sound. Melodic thinking is the starting point of her music. Grigorjeva has strong links with the Slavic sacred music tradition, as well as with the polyphony of older European music.
Grigorjeva has a remarkable ability to 'orchestrate' polyphony, creating meaningful and beautiful harmonies in a flowing texture. The breathy rhetoric of his music is close to A. Pärt, but with a personal sense of harmony.
Grigorjeva is a minimalist in the broadest sense of the word. There is a lot of air in her works. Her music breathes. The sound of her works is transparent and delicate. She is extremely attentive to the expressive power and meaning of each individual interval and intonation.
Galina Grigorjeva has studied at the Simferopol Music School and the Odessa Conservatory. In 1991 she graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatoire as a creative student of Professor Yuri Falik, and in 1994-1998 she continued her studies at the Estonian Academy of Music under the supervision of Lepo Sumera. During the 2006/2007 season, Galina Grigorjeva was composer-in-residence with the NYYD Ensemble. Currently she works as a freelance composer. Her music has been performed in Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Germany, France, USA, etc. Her works have been performed by the early music ensemble Hortus Musicus (artistic director Andres Mustonen), the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (conductor Paul Hillier), the Moscow Chamber Orchestra (conductor Konstantin Orbeljan), the chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica (artistic director Gidon Kremer), Moscow Patriarchate Choir (conductor Anatoly Grindenko), Latvian National Choir, Swedish percussion ensemble Kroumata, Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, Swiss recorder player Conrad Steinmann, French clarinetist Michel Lethiec and others. In addition to Estonian festivals (NYYD, David Oistrakh Festival), Grigoryeva's works have been performed at festivals such as "From Avant-garde to Modernity" (St. Petersburg, 1996), "Two Days and Two Nights" (Ukraine, 2001 and 2003), "December Nights" (Moscow, 2002), Naantali Festival in Finland, Lockenhaus Festival in Austria (2003), Pablo Casals Festival in Pradesh (France, 2004), etc.
Galina Grigoreva was selected by Estonian Radio to participate in the International Composers' Rostrum in Amsterdam in 2000 for her work "Parting" and in the Rostrum in Paris in 2002 for her work "Lament". Galina Grigoryeva is the recipient of the Heino Eller Music Prize (2003) and the Estonian Cultural Endowment's Annual Prize for Music (2004 and 2013). In 2014, she was awarded the Order of the White Star, 4th Class. Grigorjeva's album "In paradisum" was awarded the Estonian Music Prize in the Classical Album category in 2015. In 2020, Grigorjeva was awarded the Lepo Sumera Composition Prize.
Her works have been published by Theatre of Voices Edition.