Galina Ustvolskaya

Biography

Galina Ivanovna Ustvolskaya (Russian: Галина Ивановна Уствольская ) (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 agreed to be interviewed, as she found it unpleasant to talk about her own music. In her lifetime, she only approved 21 of her works for performance.

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