Azerbaijani composer and pianist Franghiz AliZadeh has produced a prolific body of classical concert music that draws inspiration from Azerbaijan’s venerable musical and literary traditions. A graduate of Baku Conservatory, Ms. AliZadeh has long served as a bridge between Baku’s musical establishment and leading composers, performers, and musical institutions in Europe and North America. In the 1970s, she gave the Baku premieres of works all but un- known to local audiences by John Cage, George Crumb, Olivier Messiaen, and members of the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern).

Also in the 1970s, her own music began to appear on concert programmes in Europe and North America through collaborations with, and later, commissions from, a constellation of distinguished performers and presenting institutions. These have included the Berlin Philharmonic, Concertgebouw, violinist Hilary Hahn, Houston Grand Opera, Kronos Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, Lucerne Festival, and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, for which she wrote Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, premiered in Lisbon in 2002 by Ivan Monighetti and the Gulbenkian Orchestra, conducted by Muhai Tang. Franghiz AliZadeh’s compositions continue to be performed regularly in Azerbaijan. For the 2004 re-opening of the Azerbiajan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, her commissioned orchestral work “Homage” was conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich. Her opera “Intizar” (Awaiting) has been part of the theatre’s permanent repertoire since 2007.

Currently, Franghiz AliZadeh is working on several commissioned projects, including a piece for the Los Angeles-based iPalpiti Festival, where she will also give master classes as a composer-in-residence. Franghiz AliZadeh has served as chairman of the Composers› Union of Azerbaijan since 2007, and currently serves as artistic director of the Silk Road International Music Festival in Sheki, Azerbaijan.