European American Music Distributors Company is a member of the Schott Music Group

Dobrinka Tabakova's Concerto for Accordion and Orchestra Premiered in Stuttgart

May. 30, 2025

On May 17, Dobrinka Tabakova's Concerto for Accordion and Orchestra was premiered in Stuttgart's Liederhalle by Latvian accordionist Ksenija Sidorova, for whom the work was written, in partnership with The Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Michał Nesterowicz. The work was commissioned by the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Lake Constance Festival, Dzintaru Koncertzāle, Sofia Philharmonic, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Tabakova describes the Concerto for Accordion and Orchestra as a musical arc that slowly opens up and draws more and more into the light. The music is carried by breathing figures in which the expressive power of the accordion unfolds. She says:

"The accordion has fascinated me for a very long time: a folk instrument and an integral part of a variety of European and global folk music on the one hand, a black mechanical box with a breathing center on the other. These characteristics inspired me in my student composition The Accordion, which I wrote for an ensemble in which the instrument did not appear at all. “A machine with a soul” was my working title at the time, and this line inspired the new accordion concerto at a crucial time for our humanity. A time when our society is grappling with the concept of technology dictating our cultural diet, when algorithms and artificial intelligence are trying to replace genuine connection and curiosity, while our souls long for affection and understanding." 

Dobrinka Tabakova is known for her colorful, emotionally dense style, which combines Western and Eastern European influences. Her Concerto for Accordion and Orchestra also picks up on this bridge-building – both geographically and musically. Tabakova sees music as a connecting language between cultures. Her choice of the accordion as the central instrument is an expression of this attitude: an instrument that is at home in many musical traditions and takes on new, unfamiliar dimensions in this work.

The world premiere is followed by national premieres in several countries: on May 19 in Dornbirn, Austria, as part of the Lake Constance Festival, on June 19 in Sofia, Bulgaria, on July 18 in Jūrmala, Latvia, and in the 2025/2026 season with the Royal Liverpool Orchestra as the first performance in the United Kingdom. Thus, the concerto will travel through Europe in a musical journey that is in line with the intercultural spirit of the work.

Listen to Tabakova's Suite in Old Style "The Court Jester Amareu" (2006):
Suite in Old Style "The Court Jester Amareu"/Dobrinka Tabakova/Spanish Radio Television Symphony Orchestra/
Maxim Rysanov (viola & conductor)

To learn about Dobrinka Tabakova, visit schott-music.com.

Dobrinka Tabakova
Concerto for Accordion and Orchestra (2024-2025)
2.2.2.2(2cbsn)-4.3.2.btbn.1-timp.-2perc(mar., vib., s.d.,)-pno.-str
25'

News