On 9 August 2023 at 19:00 in the Bishop's Basilica of Philippopolis will take place the world premiere of a piano quintet by Dobrinka Tabakova with the title Stone Trace. Piano Quintet by Dobrinka Tabakova was commissioned by the Off the Beaten Path Foundation with the financial support of the Ernst von Siemens Foundation for New Music. The event is also supported by the Municipality of Plovdiv under K3 "Civic Activity".

Born in Plovdiv, Dobrinka Tabakova has lived and worked in London since 1991, where she graduated from the Guildhall Conservatoire and received her PhD from King's College London. Her music, described by the Washington Times as "deeply moving", has been presented at various European music festivals including the BBC Proms (UK), Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), Vozvratsenie (Russia), World Sun Songs (Latvia) and Dark Music Days (Iceland).

In 2014, her debut self-titled album, String Paths, released by the German record label ECM Records, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Classical Compendium category. In 2017, a new album was released. Tabakova was appointed composer-in-residence of the BBC Concert Orchestra (BBCCO). She is the winner of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Anthem Award and First Prize and Medallion in the Sorel Foundation Choral Competition in New York. Her other significant projects include Shakespeare Immortal, a cantata for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in 2016, and the double piano concerto Together Let Us Not Forget To Dance / Centuries of Meditation for the UK Three Choirs Festival, which in 2019 was named by the PRS Foundation as one of the UK's best contemporary compositions of the last 25 years. Dobrinka Tabakova's second original album (Regent Records) - featuring choral music performed by Truro Cathedral Choir with the BBC Concert Orchestra - was voted one of the best albums of 2019 by the critics of Gramophone magazine.

In 2021 Tabakova completed her orchestral Earth Suite for the BBC Concert Orchestra and violin concerto The Patience of Trees for the Manchester International Festival. In 2023, look out for her third original album (ECM Records), premiere performances by the St. Louis Chamber Choir and The Sixteen, a new string quartet for the ARD Competition in Munich, and a new recording with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in New York.

Program:

Pizzinato / Strum for String Quartet -- Jesse Montgomery (b.1981)*
Beautiful Eyes / Vaghe Luci -- Antonio Caldara (1670-1736)
Songs for All Seasons -- Dobrinka Tabakova (b.1980)*
Stone Trace -- piano quintet (2023) -- Dobrinka Tabakova (b.1980)**
Piano Quintet in B-flat Major, Op. 44 -- Robert Schumann (1810-1856)