Galina Ustvolskaya

Galina Ivanovna Ustvolskaya ( ) (17 June 1919 – 22 December 2006), was a Russian composer of classical music. Known by Dutch critic Elmer Schönberger as “the lady with the hammer”, her music has been described as demanding “everything from the performer”, uncompromising in her trademark textured homophonic blocks of sound. Ustvolskaya created her own unique style, characterized by unusual combinations of instruments that created highly specific tone clusters and textures and by her large dynamic ranges. She was reclusive and rarely accepted to be interviewed as she found it unpleasant to talk about her own music. In her lifetime, she only approved of 21 of her works for performance. Early years Galina Ustvolskaya was born in Petrograd (modern day St. Petersburg). Her mother was a school teacher; her father was a lawyer. Her early childhood took place during the Russian Civil War and the October Revolution. Despite her impoverished childhood and non-musical family, from a young age she developed an interest in music. She was deemed to be gifted when she began musical studies at the age of 7. Middle years Ustvolskaya studied at the Leningrad Conservatory from 1937 to 1939. Her teache